"As a nation, we are sick because we don't sleep."

"As a nation, we are sick because we don't sleep."  Bent Formby, PhD

Where you sleep less than you were created to, melatonin { a GREAT antioxidant } isn't the only hormone affected. There are at least 10 hormones related to appetite, fertility, mental and cardiac health suffer from the effects of not allowing our body a full nights sleep. When we don't sleep in sync with season variations (living in too much artifical light in the winter and not heading to bed when the sun goes down) we alter our natural balance.

Let's look at some of those out-of-balance hormones:
Prolactin is a survival hormone that controls appetite and affect leptin which controls our carb cravings. We only secrete porlactin after we fall asleep. So if we are cutting our nights short, our bodies is still producing prolactin (remember hormones have to run a cycle during the night) which  suppresses leptin and makes us crave carbs upon waking in the morning.

Stress increases cortisol levels causes high levels of serotonin.  Serotonin is convereted to melotonin when we sleep. If we don't sleep enough to let our bodies convert all the serotonin to melotonin we end up with elevated levels of serotonin still upon waking.  High levels of serotonin during the day lead to depression.

Insulin is produced only when your body senses sugar, from eating carbohydrates, or stress, from too much cortisol from being in the light too long every day.  We have too much carbohydrate and too much stress in our lives, thus we have high levels of insulin. "Excess insulin makes you fat by causing fat to enter fat cells, your brain to tell you that you are hungry, and your liver to make fat from extra calories. It causes strokes and heart attacks by causing clots, raising triglycerides and lowering the good HDL cholesterol. Insulin promotes oxidation that converts the bad LDL cholesterol to oxidized LDL that forms plaques in arteries. High levels of insulin cause your kidneys to retain salt and raise blood pressure." states Gabe Mirkin, M.D.

In order to control our appetite for carbs and loose weight, we must raise our leptin levels and bring our insulin levels down, WE MUST GET MORE SLEEP!

Less sleep =  less melatonin (antioxidant) and less leptin (carb craving supressor) and more insulin
More sleep = serotonin used up to make melatonin (antioxidant)  and more leptin to curb carb cravings and lower levels of insulin

Sleep apnea sufferes, why are we overweight? Part of it is we haven't been really sleeping for possibly years!  Get your CPAP, stick with your treatment!  This is essential to hormone balance and everything they regulate in your body is absolutely dependent on a good-nights-sleep.