Arianna Huffington and one of the eds of Glamour magazine, Cindi Leive, have teamed up to bring awareness to the lack of sleep most American women are suffering from. Brava girls, this is a serious issue and one I’ve been harping on for like, ever. (Said in my best Valley Girl tone)

They even brought one of my fave sleep experts, Dr. Michael Breus, into the conversation for some recommendations. “Women are significantly more sleep-deprived than men,” confirmed Dr. Breus who is the author of Beauty Sleep: Look Younger, Lose Weight, and Feel Great Through Better Sleep. “They have so many commitments, and sleep starts to get low on the totem pole. They may know that sleep should be a priority, but then, you know, they’ve just got to get that last thing done. And that’s when it starts to get bad.”

Bad in Arianna’s case was that she passed out from exhaustion, broke her cheekbone and got 5 stitches above her eye. While most of us will not have that severe a “wake up call” sorry for the pun I couldn’t help myself, sleep deprivation shows up in subtle ways. Over time it adds up and can limit our career and personal success. Without the proper amount of sleep the brain gets foggy, we are not as quick with our decision making skills, greater stress and more.

One of the things in the “more” category which will interest many midlife women is the relationship between not enough sleep and weight gain. It’s proven that shorting yourself on zzzzs will cause you to store fat right where we don’t want it–in the belly. The reasons are many and have to do with hormones for the most part. In short, stress hormones are released or continue to circulate when we don’t get enough sleep. More cortisol means a rise in blood sugar, which means more fat storage among other things. And we make poorer food choices when we are tired in an effort to boost serotonin-the feel good hormone. And we don’t usually feel like exercise, our mood is generally low and so we might comfort ourselves with something sweet and or carbie. And so it goes.

By the way, if you think you are somehow a lazy cow if you sleep a full 8 hours, think again. The HuffPost goes on to say that many women feel they must be workaholics to be taken seriously by the old boys network. In some circles that may be true but in the long run it’s counterproductive if working all the time cuts in to your beauty sleep. I’d suggest reading post #1, and #2 which continues the discussion. In this post the women discuss their successes and challenges in sticking to their commitments to get more sleep for 30 days. Arianna and Cindi have done a smart job at pointing out the limits we are putting on our success as women by continuing this crazy lifestyle habit.

Let me know where you are on the “full night’s sleep” challenge in the comments section. Do you feel better when you sleep more or less? And if you want more tips on losing weight at midlife, why not go take a gander at my new site, Easy Midlife Weight Loss.

Quite frankly, I was shocked. Yesterday on my call with Patti Milligan, MS. RD. nutrition and supplement expert I mentioned that exercise and healthy eating are not enough, most of us should include some supplements depending on our bodies needs, the environment around us, our levels of stress. Patti jumped in there and said, “I don’t want to be an alarmist but that’s the worst toxin we have.” What is? “Stress” she answered emphatically.

The worst one? Like so many women I tend to down play stress as it shows up day to day. Granted I also don’t have anything chronically eating at me–or at least I’m not awake to it. Toxic stress includes, never getting a good night’s sleep, a long frustrating commute, a disruptive colleague or unreasonable boss, an abusive relationship with anyone you interact with, chronic illness or pain, and so on. 

Here’s what Patti shared. First off picture some rock salt or even Kosher salt, it’s course and jagged right? This is the shape of a stress hormone. As it floats through the bloodstream, it nicks at the edges of the arteries. These nicks require patching up, think small band aid on a paper cut. The band aid in this case is cholesterol, the cholesterol builds up due to more and more nicks and you get clogged arteries. You can also get a heart attack, a stroke, or that final disco dance.

But wait, there’s more. Stress aggravates the immune system which means we are more susceptible to illness and bugs. It’s also extremely fatiguing when the immune system is always on high alert. A clinician told Patti that after a stressful event or after chronic stress the body is like a post hurricane event on land. There is a disaster with lots of clean up and relief help needed. 

Our B vitamins are the sacrificial lamb in the body’s stress management program. Why care? B vitamins are important for brain function, neurotransmitters firing, nourishing the adrenal glads and modulating stress.

What else can we do to help manage stress in the body? Maintain an even blood sugar level throughout the day. This requires you to eat 4 – 6 times per day. Hydration is #2 but not just water, cellular hydration which includes making sure you have the right electrolyte balance which will in part come from eating plenty of vegetables and some fruit, not drinking sugary bevs or eating too much salt.

#3 is take care of yourself. Look around when you start to feel squeezed–and I’m not talking about getting into your high school jeans. If you feel pressure from life look around and see what the cause is. What can you do to relief some of the pressure? Exercise is great, a long soak in the tub helps some, talking to a friend is also helpful. Do these things get to the root of the problem tho? No. It’s important at this age to get that stuff handled and out of your life. How to do it? Get yourself a coach, a support system, do some research on how others have done what you need or want to do.

Some stress is ok but clearly the stress that’s chronic is something we’ve got to pay attention to.

As a midlife wellness coach who is practically the get-more-sleep-police I was horrified to realize there was nary a post here on the subject. Starting now that’s going to change and my hope is that you’ll benefit by putting some of the how-to tips to work for you. I’m also hoping to do a Power Hour call with Dr. Marcia Lindsey. whom I was recently introduced to and who is known as the Sleep Diva .

Let’s start with a fact that shocked me.

According to John Medina in the book Brain Rules, “when people become sleep deprived, their ability to utilize the food they consume falls by about 1/3. The ability to make insulin and to extract energy from glucose begins to fail miserably.”  

Ouch, we certainly don’t need another contributing factor to metabolic disorder or diabetes. Not to mention, when you are tired you don’t make good food choices and often times reach for carbs to boost the serotonin missing in the brain. More carbs, more insulin resistance.

And lack of sleep leads to an excess of circulating cortisol, a stress hormone. Get this, “Cortisol has been shown to reduce muscle mass, increase bone loss and osteoporosis, interfere with the generation of new skin cells, increase fat accumulation around the waist and hips, and reduce memory and learning abilities.” 

Holy you know what! You might want to read that again, too much circulating cortisol is evil and it is produced in response to not only lack of sleep but to chronic stress that is not released from the body.

Bottom line boomers? If you don’t sleep well find out how you can improve your nocturnal hours. If you have chronic stress–an unhealthy relationship, an overly demanding job or boss, a health challenge–you owe it to yourself to get those things handled. Make it a priority so you can be around and living with a vengeance for all the things you have yet to do.

Well there must be because my friend and nutrition expert sent me some of the topics she wants to cover on our next Midlife Mind and Body Power Hour

and this was one of them.

Say what? Digestion and the health of my hair, skin, and nails? Well, why not? A good portion of our health must depend on not only what we eat but how well our gut digests and extracts the nutrition.

I’m intrigued though that she feels its important enough to spend some time teaching us on.

She is also going to cover the the thick middle syndrom, also known here as the Muffin Top–wonder what her take on the whole Hydroxycut recall and ban is? You’re going to have to sign up for the call

to find out. It’s also a webinar so you can listen via computer if that’s easier and more comfortable.

If you’ve read much of my blog or heard any of my wellness calls you’ll know that I am the get-more-sleep police. But many of us don’t know how to get a good night’s sleep anymore. Well, Ms. Milligan has some ideas and some supplements she’ll recommend–the call is titled “Supplementing at Midlife for Optimal Health” after all. And I’d like to add “To Look and Feel Your Best.” 

What about anti-aging, can one really turn back the clock and if so what supplements help? Join us for answers to this and why not ask your burning question? This call is for you, my readers and clients, and I encourage you to ask a question by using the ask-a-question form when you register.

The date is May 20, 2009, time, 4pm EST and you will have to register to get the call in info. I hope you’ll join us and participate. I’ll be on Skype throughout the call to take questions from participants.

“See” you on the call.

Patti Milligan MS, RD