Why short nights make us eat
After a full day of waking up, getting the whole family ready for the day, dealing with all the stress of work, and coming home to necessary chores, it's not surprising that we all want to stay up late to unwind. We crawl in bed at midnight, or later, and then have to wake up early to start again.
If this sounds like you, in some form or fashion, don’t worry you’re not alone. A lot of us give 110% of ourselves all day and late into the night. We stay up late watching TV, trying not to agonize about the next day. We toss and turn, desperate for sleep that never comes. We struggle to verbalize or even make sense of our stress, but somehow the pint of ice cream or bag of chips makes us feel so much better. What’s up with that? Are you a bad person because you’re looking for some comfort?
First, no, you’re not a bad person, you’re human doing human things! Our body has an amazing number of tactics to keep us safe or make us feel comfortable, even when it feels counter-productive. Our stress signals us that we are in danger, which increases our cortisol levels.
Cortisol is the hormone that affects basically every part of you, and helps you manage stress, fight infection, and a whole bunch of other really useful stuff. Cortisol, in its efforts to try and keep you happy and comforted, activates the body to store fat, increase appetite, and crave our comfort foods, aka stress eating. Although lack of sleep and increased cortisol levels are not necessarily linked, we tend to sleep less and often eat more when we’re over-stressed.
So what do you do? First, meet with your doctor. As always, you and your doctor know your body best, and what specific treatment options can work for you. But there are some other small steps you can take to help:
Learn to say “No”: We all want to be wonder-human and never let anyone down. We want to be in three places at the same time. However, putting others before ourselves actually brings everyone down. When you over-commit, the projects you’ve committed to don’t get your full energy. Learn to say no to what you just don’t want on your plate, and say yes to what you can reasonably do without compromising your sleep and your health.
Charge your phone in another room: We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again! If you’re up all night answering emails or scrolling through social media on your phone, you’re not giving your brain the opportunity to shut down. Chances are your sleep is going to bring you more peace of mind than forwarding Excel spreadsheets or looking at cat videos. Cats prioritize their sleep, and you deserve the same!
Stop buying your comfort foods: If it's not in your house, it becomes much more difficult to eat. Ice cream bringing you joy? Get some lower-sugar yogurt instead. Clearing out a bag of chips because omg stress!? Keep some baby carrots around. Sure, neither are as sweet or as salty, but you get probiotics and vitamins!
Show yourself some grace: Don’t feel bad or guilty about how you’ve been managing your stress, you’ve been doing your best. Don’t feel like you have to be perfect, eat perfectly (what does that even mean!?), exercise 2 hours everyday, and a bunch of other unrealistic expectations. In the words of the legendary Michael Jordan: “Stop it. Get some help.” It's ok to get help!
You’ll notice that we didn’t put “get more sleep” because there’s no point in going to bed early if you can’t sleep and then get stressed about not sleeping enough. Getting more sleep and reducing stress takes time, patience, and getting some help breaking the cycle. At The Healing Ring, we’re here to help.