Is Snoring Causing You to Gain Weight?

Have you been told that you need to lose weight to stop snoring? Well, what if snoring is causing the weight gain or at least making it harder for you to lose weight? Sort of changes your perspective, right? This is especially true if you have been really trying to shed pounds. Maybe purchasing one of the many anti snoring devices so you sleep better will allow you to lose pounds that may be keeping you in this vicious cycle of snoring and gaining weight.

How Snoring Can Cause You to Gain Weight

When you are a heavy snorer, your body has to work hard to get the oxygen it needs all night. This keeps you in non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep too long. Your body needs to move into the deep sleep cycle, more commonly known as rapid eye movement, or REM sleep.

Since you don’t spend enough time in REM sleep, you wake up feeling exhausted, even if you were “sleeping” for eight hours. When you are sleep deprived, your body craves high-calorie sugary, fatty foods to get through the day.

Once you consume these foods, you get a burst of energy, but then as you crash, your body tells you it needs more of these foods. You naturally get enticed by those food options because your body believes unhealthy foods are necessary for energy. Of course, excess calories are getting stored as fat, so you pack on the pounds.

Also, the REM sleep stage is where most dreaming takes place. It I suggested that more nighttime calories are burned during this stage. So, if you are deprived of spending adequate time in this sleep stage you are burning fewer calories at night.

Of course, you can’t blame weight gain entirely on snoring, but it certainly could be part of the problem. Deal with the snoring, and it may be easier to stay on track with a healthy diet and active lifestyle.