This week’s topic speaks dearly to me as a new mom: sleep and how it affects your heart. You already know you won’t be getting any sleep at all when you have a baby but you don’t truly know what that means and how it feels until you experience it. I mean, you really want to roll your eyes at everyone that says “enjoy your sleep now” when you’re pregnant. First, you’re not sleeping well anyway while pregnant and if you are, well, you’re of the minority and everyone else hates you.
Science Sunday today covers The Skinny on Why Poor Sleep May Increase Heart Disease in Women.
Imagine that… poor sleep causes major physical problems.
What this study covers is the affects of poor sleep on women and their eating habits. It covers 495 women over the length of a whole year!
Specifically, this article found that women who slept poorly tended to make poor nutrition choices which in turn leads to cardiovascular disease.
“The Sleep-Diet Connection
- Women with worse sleep quality consumed more of the added sugars associated with obesity and diabetes.
- Women who took longer to fall asleep ate more calories and food by weight.
- Women with severe insomnia ate more food and fewer ‘healthy’ fats.”
I wonder what the percentage of women were mothers. The article does state that the group of women were diverse ethnically and their age range was 20-79. Since becoming a mother myself I definitely believe this also plays a huge factor. I didn’t see anything mentioned in the AHA’s study (that lead to this article I’m referencing).
The biggest takeaway seems to be get better, quality sleep but how?
There are always things like getting into a bedtime routine with limiting screen exposure an hour or two before bed, taking a bath, drinking non-caffeinated, listening to relaxing music or meditations.
What about you? How well do you sleep at night?
Nicoles Fitness 