Impact of Sleep Loss on the Family and Children

One psychiatry professor and sleep researcher at Harvard Medical School (NY Times, Jan. 9, 2007) has found through his research that students need plenty of sleep because growth hormone is secreted during sleep, and if they do not sleep enough, they will have shorter attention spans and use calories less efficiently.

Nutritionist Cherie Calbom, MS and psychotherapist John Calbom, MA show how lack of sleep affects the efficient use of calories in their latest book Sleep Away the Pounds (Warner Wellness).  When you don’t get the hours of sleep your body needs, the hormone ghrelin increases, and studies show it causes you to want to eat more food, especially high-carb foods. In addition, the hormone leptin that controls the appetite goes down.  This can cause intense hunger sensations.  One study found that participants with the biggest fluctuation of hormones craved the most fattening foods such as ice cream, cakes, candy, and salty snacks like potato chips.  Many people have thought it was just a lack of willpower when they couldn’t conquer cravings or binge eating; now we know, that for many people, it’s hormonal imbalances.

A whopping one-third of our population sleeps 6.5 or fewer hours nightly—far less than the 8 hours that many sleep-specialists recommend for adults. One physician says the number of overtired patients he sees has soared in the last 25 years since he has been in practice because families are trying “to squeeze 28 hours of living into 24.”

One student said that she discovered she was sleeping a few hours less than the 11 hours recommended for a 13-year-old. Her sleep journal showed that she played with her cats, getting hyped up before bed, or watched television and was unable to turn it off. She has since started reading or doing other relaxing activities to help her slow down before bedtime.

In our frenzy to experience it all and get it all done, many families are missing out on one of life’s most important necessities—a good night’s sleep, says Cherie Calbom. “We're shifting to a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week society, and as a result we're increasingly not sleeping like we used to," says one professor at the University of British Columbia. We're really only now starting to understand how that is affecting our weight and our health, and it appears to be significant.