[Book Excerpt] Weight Gain Lowers Sleep Quality

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Some people feel they do not sleep well despite the amount of time they spend sleeping, while others enjoy the full benefits of sleep. The reason lies in sleep quality. The author, a neuroscientist and sleep medicine specialist with 30 years of experience, corrects common misconceptions about sleep and helps readers break bad sleep habits. The author argues that a fundamental change in attitude toward sleep is necessary. To this end, the book introduces the mechanisms of sleep and encourages readers to identify their own sleep issues. Drawing from experience as a sleep consultant for world-class athletes in Major League Baseball and the NBA, the author shares how improved sleep habits led to optimal performance.

Until recently, the correlation between sleep and obesity was largely ignored. However, looking back at decades of research, weight gain is a key factor that lowers sleep quality, mainly due to changes in breathing caused by increased weight. (...) Research indicating the impact of weight gain on decreased sleep quality has been clear for over 50 years. Meanwhile, more recent studies show the reverse: deteriorating sleep quality can directly contribute to weight gain. - Chapter 1, Sleep Is a Cure-All, pp. 35-36

Not feeling sleepy despite not sleeping is a phenomenon that directly contradicts a primary biological force. The longer a person stays awake, the sleepier they inevitably become. While heightened arousal or anxiety can temporarily suppress this force, it cannot be blocked entirely. For example, if you smell smoke while lying in bed, anxiety will keep you awake. You might also be unable to sleep if you hear something moving under your bed. Additionally, worrying that you might not fall asleep can itself become a barrier to sleep. - Chapter 2, Sleep Overcomes Everything, p. 52

In adults, N3 sleep accounts for about 25 percent of total sleep time and occurs mainly in the first half of the night. The body recovers during N3 sleep because this is when the most growth hormone is secreted. You might wonder why growth hormone matters after the growth period has ended. In fact, growth hormone is not only important for development. This is precisely why I advise athletes on sleep. Growth hormone aids muscle recovery and helps athletes perform at their best. - Chapter 4, If You Didn't Dream, You Slept Deeply?, pp. 87-88

Paradoxical insomnia is a condition in which people believe they sleep very little or not at all compared to their actual sleep time. It was previously called sleep state misperception, and before that, semi-hypnotic sleep. On the other hand, some people feel they sleep soundly at night but, in reality, do not sleep well and feel extremely tired during the day. - Chapter 6, "I Slept, But I Didn't Sleep," p. 113

Why do patients use the term insomnia even when they are not truly unable to sleep? The answer is simple: they are dissatisfied with their sleep. Even if you are unhappy with your sleep, you can still sleep?just as you go to work every day even if you dislike your job. We need to understand that insomnia does not stem from a lack of sleep itself. In such cases, the physician's role is to reframe and redefine the problem. However, this process of redefining should not diminish the patient's suffering. (...) In other words, even if a patient who previously believed they could not sleep realizes they actually do sleep, the physician should still provide treatment. If a patient seeks medical help or reads books about sleep despite sleeping, there is a reason for it. - Chapter 9, How to Uproot Simple Insomnia, p. 158

Sleeping pills should only be used temporarily. They can be effective when used appropriately, but they were never intended for nightly use. Let me put it in terms of eating. Imagine you sit down at the table but do not feel very hungry. Would you immediately take an appetite stimulant out of fear of malnutrition? That would make no sense. In fact, taking medication in this way would make it even harder to feel hungry at your next meal, leading to a need for more and more appetite stimulants. - Chapter 11, Can You Put the Brain to Sleep with Medication?, p. 199

The average human brain weighs only about 1.3 kg, but it uses 20 percent of the body's oxygen. If oxygen were oil, the brain would be like the United States, which is heavily dependent on oil. Patients with sleep apnea experience oxygen deprivation in the brain up to 60 times per hour during the night. This makes good sleep quality impossible. Each time breathing difficulty occurs, the brain faces a dilemma: should it endure the suffocation while sleeping, or should it wake up to breathe? - Chapter 14, Types of Sleep Disorders That Deprive the Brain of Oxygen, p. 246

The Neuroscience of Sleep | Chris Winter, Lee Hanum | Hyundae Jiseong | 296 pages | 18,000 KRW