Follow-up: Sleep quality changes during weight loss posts 61–81
This is a continuation of a long topic, addressed by post number rather than by page. Start at post 1.
A sleep diary with times rather than impressions is the only way to tell a real change from a remembered one, and it takes a minute a day.
Happy to be the one who is wrong here if it settles the question.
Post #61 is right about the mechanism and I think understates the practical bit.
Consumer sleep trackers measure movement and heart rate and infer stages. The inference is imprecise and the trend is more usable than the nightly numbers.
Energy and sleep needs: rapid weight loss increases real metabolic stress. Sleep needs might increase even though appetite for food has decreased. Prioritising sleep is prudent during active weight loss.
The literature is thinner on this than the confidence in the thread implies.
Gastrointestinal effects overnight: nausea or reflux or constipation at night can disrupt sleep. Dosing timing (morning versus evening) might help if nighttime GI symptoms are the problem.
Reporting the observation and leaving the explanation open deliberately.
Post #64 answers the question as asked. The question underneath it is different.
Energy availability affects sleep in both directions, and a large deficit can produce either fragmentation or unusual sleepiness.
I read post #66 twice before replying, because I had assumed the opposite.
Sleep quality changes reported here have several plausible contributors, and separating drug effects from weight change, from schedule change, and from anxiety is genuinely difficult.
Adding the measurement that post #68 says would settle it.
Caffeine and alcohol both affect sleep architecture and both change during a period of reduced intake without anybody deciding to change them.
When sleep problems need attention: if sleep does not improve as weight loss continues or if it worsens, discussing with a clinician is prudent. Sleep disorders are real and treatable.
Appetite suppression and nighttime eating: if nighttime eating was a pattern, appetite suppression changes that pattern. Sleep can worsen if nighttime waking is habitual and now there is no appetite-based reason to wake.
Posting it because the silence on this was starting to look like agreement.
Answering the question post #69 raises rather than the one it answers.
Apnoea monitoring: if you have diagnosed or suspected sleep apnoea, periodic monitoring (annually) during weight loss is prudent because severity changes.
The arithmetic in post #73 is right; the assumption feeding it is the part to check.
Where somebody uses positive airway pressure, changes in weight can change the pressure requirement, and that is a review question rather than a self-adjustment.
Stimulants and sleep: if supplementing with caffeine or other stimulants for energy during weight loss, timing and dose matter for sleep. Evening stimulant use interferes with sleep.
Worth checking against a second source before it gets quoted onward.
Reflux at night follows directly from delayed gastric emptying and is a mechanical explanation for a complaint often attributed elsewhere.
That is my reading. Someone else read the same page differently and was reasonable.
Narrowing post #77, because the general version has more than one answer.
Consistency of timing does more for most people's sleep than any intervention discussed in this subcategory.
Sleep hygiene: basics (cool dark room, consistent sleep time, no screens before bed) matter more during energy deficit because stress and sleep need are higher.
This topic was referenced in
- Second pass at: Sleep tracking data and its considerable limitationsWellbeing › Sleep · 2 replies
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