So, I joined this forum a wile ago, and had not really seen much weight loss even though I dieted one way, then the next way, then the next.

I have finally started to lose weight.

It happened when I got interested in aquariums and fish. I put a big 30 gallon with a hang on back filter near my bed. This was so soothing that I started sleeping alot more than I ever did. Instead of going to bed at 11 or 12, I went to bed at 8, and woke up at 4:30 am.

I went from a 22 size trousers to a 20-18. I did not conciously diet, but I felt less hungry, and started to eat the soup without bread etc. And smaller portions of everything.

So. I was amused, and started to dig up potential reasons.

Recently, I found the little factoid that leptin levels are dependent on sleep duration. Leptin is the hormone that makes you feel satisfied, or less hungry.

Then, I got to thinking about what happened when I started to gain this additional 80 pounds. Answer: I had a night job. My circadian rythems were way off. I found many other stressors along the way.

I am going to start watching myself a lot more closely now. Sice getting the fish tank, my appitite is much lower. The soothing trickle sound from the filter puts me to sleep right aay, and totally relaxes me. Since then, I have put fish tanks in every room, even if they have no fish in them.

I guess you could do the same with white noise.

The main thing is that I keep thinking that late nights, stress and worry that makes you lose sleep, being awakened all the time may have a huge bering on hunger and developing a weight problem.

I am wondering if anyone here has had similar observations?

Start eating those fish and you will really lose!

I eat fish every day for breakfast and lunch (I skip dinner).

But, seriously, I do notice good sleep helps. It helps me in particular because I can workout harder. I routinely go to bed at 9am and wake up at 5am.

Early nights also stop naughty snacking. The only thing I like more than eating, in fact, is sleeping! Rather than eat, I have been known to go to bed early to escape hunger pangs.

Wow that's actually really interesting to consider! Such an unexpected change, too. I honestly have a lot of trouble with sleep patterns myself, but I'll see now that vacations are over (:

That is interesting, I can see this making sense. I have an anxiety pill I only take occasionally but my Dr. advised I should embrace it more often when I feel the stress or anxiety levels rise and I would be healthier for doing so. I certainly feel great when i have extra sleep.

Hey, whatever works! Congrats!

This explains alot! For the last 4.5 years my sleep has been very disrupted by my daughter who has never been a good sleeper. Even now at almost 5 she wakes 1-3 times a night, every night....no matter what I've tried. Anyway, I have lost the ability to fall asleep without melatonin for several years bc my brain refuses to shut down bc it is so used to being awoken. I generally cannot fall asleep til midnight and my daughter often awakens by 1 am. After getting her back to sleep and me back to sleep I get about 3.5-4 hrs before she wakes again and then another 2-3 hrs after that episode. No wonder I'm hungry all the time, LOL!

Yes, I sleep with a fan running every night. The only issue I have noticed is that once you start sleeping with a fan running for enough years, you can't get to sleep without one

Hey, thanks for the nice replies! I seriously now think that a few extra hours of sleep can cure all sorts of phisical problemsincluding the tendancy to eat too much. Of course sleep alone will not do it all. And of course, there is a difference between losing weight, and wasting away. Or is there?

I've always noticed I'm hungrier when I'm tired... I thought it was my bodies way of trying to make up for the lack of energy.

I was wondering what you have in tank? I currently have 4 aquariums, the largest being a 55g with cichlids and a bristlenose pleco, the smallest is a 2.5g with a betta and 2 - 20g, one with Endlers and red cherry shrimp and the other with a dwarf puffer and pleco.

If you don't eat enough protein or do strength training, then yes you will waste away in the sense of losing both fat and potentially a lot of muscle too.

Not so bad for the ladies. But very bad for the gents. And derailed my last weight loss effort in my teens (I became skinny fat guy aka gaunt).

So this time around, I wasted (lost fat and muscle) and now I am building (muscle without the fat - hopefully).

It's a well known fact that poor sleep contributes to obesity and other health problems. Many times our body is screaming for more rest or more energy, and often enough we give it food instead. The more tired I am the hungrier I get.

I sleep with a humidifier on which makes a slight noise and gurlge. I couldn't sleep with fish, the thought of fish swimming around my house freaks me out lol.

Thanks for getting back everyone. I am studying for my Masters Degree so I don't have a lot of time to do forums anymore.

The 55 long: I have 5 yoyo loaches, one golden dojo loach, 2 male balloon mollies, one female beta, 5 pristella tetras, one black skirt tetra, 8 glass cats, 2 peppered cories, an albino BN pleco, and one lonely ghost shrimp who has avoided getting eaten for half a year. In this tank I eventually want to put some more black skirts, and a few nice angel fish. My fish keep browsing on my plants so I have to focus on plants that are not tasty for the fish. I will not put plastic plants in my tank,

In another 10 gallon I have 2 female balloon mollies, 3 golden wonder killies, and 1 banjo catfish.

Fish are really cool! My huge Tiger Oscar fish was just like a dog, trainable and everything. Played with toys. Recognized different people. Really an awesome creature!

We have kept freshwater and saltwater fish, all very soothing except for the stress that comes from keeping them all hale and healthy.

I believe good sleep is really important, I know from experience that bad sleep can really wreck everything.

My fish tank bubbles in the room next to my bedroom all night long. If I put in too much water it doesn't make much noise and I can't fall asleep. On more than one occasion I have gotten up and removed water from it.

I'm a different person without my 8 hours.

I love sleeping with some kind of light, I love my my string of white lights that are in a gauzy curtain around the window, though my husband likes all lights out. I also have a little personal fan that blows on my face, it is pretty silent so it's just the breeze I like (though the blankets are tight up around my neck ) and I have a digital clock that has different 'nature' sounds, I usually pick the crickets trilling because that reminds me of a beautiful summer night.

I think I strayed from your original post giselly