We Need More Sleep!
 

This from the current issue of maclean's magazine.

http://www2.macleans.ca/2011/09/15/g...y-on-shut-eye/

good info. I try to get about 7 hours a night, enough to keep me functioning ok but probably not quite enough for optimum health. When I do have a chance to get an extra hour or two, I usually notice it (in a positive way!) on the scale.

I know this is a problem for me. I wake 2-3 times a night. Every night. Quality sleep is elusive for me. :(

I got a new mattress earlier this year, a generic Temperpedic style. I used to wake up multiple times a night too and this has made a HUGE difference for me. Maybe it's something to consider? It wasn't cheap, but a good night's sleep is pretty valuable! lol! And I don't think it's a coincidence that a month after I got it, I finally had the energy to start my current plan - before then, I kept wanting to start but it always felt like more effort than I could handle.

My doctors told me that I would likely lose weight without trying because of the better sleep I would get with sleep disorder treatement. They put me on a cpap for sleep apnea and gave me medication to get me into deeper sleep and for plmd (periodic limb movement disorder, which is sort of like restless leg on steroids - without the meds I thrash around so badly that hubby can't sleep in the same bed or he would get bruised).

To be honest, I wasn't just skeptical, I thought the doctors were completely nuts (I had never in my whole life of dieting, since kindergarten ever lost weight unintentionally or even without a crazy amount of effort).

Sure enough though, I lost 20 lbs without trying. I didn't even know I'd done it, because I didn't own a scale. When I found out at my next doctor's appointment several months later, I was astonished.

I wouldn't be on this weight loss journey, if it weren't for those 20 lbs. Discovering that I could lose weight without trying inspired me to try once more for weight loss (though I had to find a different way to go about it - and for me that was being determined not to put much effort into it - just enough effort that it was interesting and not outrageously difficult. I was too used to all-or-nothing thinking and had to get rid of that).

We have one of those Sleep Number beds and it's comfortable. I believe in my case that it is my husband mostly that wakes me up- mostly moving around but sometimes from snoring. I've suggested separate bedrooms before but that caused major issues because he doesn't see sleeping separate as an option. All I know is when I travel and I sleep alone in a hotel room, I sleep like a baby. I do not sleep like a baby at home, and the difference so far as I can tell is between sleeping alone or sleeping together.

That said, the temperpedic style mattress would probably help with me not knowing when he was moving around. It's a thought. I might have to check that out.

Thanks.