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#121: Improve your sleep for health, fitness, and fat loss
439 Plays3 days ago
Are you struggling to hit your health or fitness goals despite doing “all the right things”? In this solo episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast, I chat about the powerful role that sleep plays in transforming your health, boosting fitness, and supporting fat loss - often more than diet or exercise alone!
I talk about how sleep impacts everything from hunger hormones and stress levels to daily decision-making and emotional resilience. You’ll learn why optimizing your sleep isn’t just a “nice to have” - it’s a non-negotiable for long-term wellness. Plus, I share simple, practical strategies to help you build a consistent, healthy sleep routine - even when life gets busy. Whether you're tired of feeling tired or curious about sleep's hidden impact on your progress, this episode is your wake-up call!
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
[0:00] - Kicking off the episode and why this topic matters
[0:24] - How sleep influences your health, fitness, and fat loss journey
[1:37] - The link between sleep deprivation, hunger hormones, and poor choices
[2:28] - Practical tips to create a more restful nighttime routine
[3:42] - Why regular movement supports deeper, better sleep
[4:40] - How sleep helps manage mood swings and reduce stress
[5:11] - The long-term benefits of consistently good sleep
[7:07] - Navigating real-life sleep challenges with grace
[9:14] - The power of setting a consistent bedtime and wake time
[15:57] - Common disruptors to avoid for deeper sleep
[18:08] - A final word of encouragement to start small and stay consistent
Links & Resources:
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with friends who might benefit. For more health and fitness tips, follow me on Instagram and TikTok @katehamiltonhealth.
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Transcript
Introduction to Sleep and Health
00:00:08
Speaker
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Kate Hamilton Health Podcast. So this is another solo one. As I promised, I'm going to try and do these short, snappy podcasts where I kind of share my thoughts and ideas around different areas of your healthy lifestyle.
00:00:23
Speaker
So in today's episode, we are going to talk a little bit about the most important habit for health, fitness and fat loss, which is sleep.
The Role of Sleep in Health and Fitness
00:00:33
Speaker
And this might sound like an obvious one.
00:00:35
Speaker
But sleep really is the foundation of everything when it comes to fat loss, muscle gain and being fit and healthy in general. And this tends to be the one that a lot of struggle with. It tends to be the first thing to go when we get stressed. It tends to be the first one that declines when we get busy or when life gets exciting.
00:00:54
Speaker
We tend to not prioritize it. as much as we really should. And it can kind of have that reputation of making us a boring person. But it really is the foundation of everything, no matter what your goals are. And when people come on board for coaching with myself and my coaches, one of the most important things we need to look at first is your sleep patterns and your sleep routine, I suppose, as well.
00:01:16
Speaker
So why is sleep so important on this journey? So I'm going to obviously these going to be a bit like Kate, you're stating the fucking obvious. But then other things might be things that you've actually you might actually learn something you didn't know here, or you might be reminded of something that you've kind of forgotten. And now as you rethink it, you realise how actually important this is towards your
Sleep and Hunger Hormones
00:01:37
Speaker
goals. OK, so lack of sleep can affect your hunger hormones. so OK, lack of sleep can increase your ghrelin, which makes you feel hungry and it can decrease leptin, which makes you feel full.
00:01:48
Speaker
Like that's first off, you're fighting an uphill battle. If you're not getting enough sleep, you are going to be fighting hunger, which is an unnecessary way if you just got enough sleep and manage those hormones properly.
00:01:59
Speaker
Poor sleep can decrease your self-control and decision making abilities when it comes to food. and it can increase your brain's reaction to food. okay So obviously we're a little bit emotional. We're a little bit less effective at making good, balanced decisions when we're tired.
00:02:17
Speaker
That is no different when it comes to food. So obvious one there. Obviously, if you're absolutely knackered, you're more likely to reach for the packet of biscuits than if you actually are feeling well rested and in a good spot.
Bedtime Habits to Prevent Snacking
00:02:28
Speaker
Going to sleep earlier. like This is probably a bit of a no shit, Kate one, but like I think it's very it's important to note as well. Going to sleep earlier may help you avoid the late night snacking that often comes with staying up past your bedtime.
00:02:39
Speaker
So most people, when they talk to me about the uncontrollable eating and they going over their calories, if they're tracking calories, it usually happens when they're sitting down at night. It's the late night snacking. Go to bed earlier.
00:02:50
Speaker
Like it might sound boring. It might sound difficult at first. When you realize how much of a difference that's going to make to how you feel, you'll start wanting to go to bed earlier. But getting to bed earlier is going to limit the amount of late night snacking. And that doesn't mean that you can't sit down for an hour and watch one episode of something and have the snacks that you've planned for. That's totally fine.
00:03:09
Speaker
But then treat yourself like you would your child. You know, like when I'm sending my seven year old to bed who doesn't want to go to bed and he's fighting with me about going to bed. Do that with yourself. fight with yourself without going to bed, but stick to it.
00:03:20
Speaker
Just like you would let your seven-year-old sit there and eat nonstop before going to bed. You need to start kind of giving yourself that same kind of strict routine, if that makes sense. Also, think about the more late night snacking you're doing is going to make it harder for you to go to sleep because you're going to have more sugar and salt in your system and your body's trying to break down the food just before you go to sleep. So it's going to be like a win-win when you start sorting that.
Motivation and Physical Activity
00:03:41
Speaker
Next one, getting enough sleep will increase your motivation to be more active and being physically active can also improve your sleep. So win-win. Yes, if you're well rested, you're more likely to actually want to go to the gym, to want to do your workout, to want to go for your walk, to want to go for your run.
00:04:00
Speaker
And the more active you are throughout the day, the more physically tired you're going to be, which means you're going to sleep better that following night as well. You know if you're feeling like you're stuck in this bad cycle at the minute, at this vicious cycle of not getting enough sleep, being tired, having poor habits throughout the day, which is leading to a bad night's sleep and it's kind of going around in circles, breaking one little chain in this.
00:04:20
Speaker
by being more physically active will make you more tired, which will then make your sleep increase, which will make you want to be more physically active. So you have to pick one thing to focus on. So if you're like, no matter what, I'm going to get my workout in.
00:04:31
Speaker
It's going to help you sleep better tonight. And then after you sleep better tonight, you're more likely to get another form of physical activity in the next day and start creating a new positive loop.
Stress Reduction and Mood Enhancement
00:04:40
Speaker
Good sleeping habits will minimise stress and improve your mood, which makes sleep This whole experience of getting fitter, getting healthier, losing weight, building muscle, whatever your goal is, it's going to make your whole experience much more positive if you are less stressed and if your mood is better. Because no matter what our circumstances are, we can only experience our circumstances through the lens of our mindset and how we see the world. So you cannot tackle stressful situations and you cannot see things in the best possible light without a good night's sleep.
00:05:08
Speaker
Another huge reason to do Take it seriously.
Health Risks of Chronic Sleep Deprivation
00:05:11
Speaker
Good sleep habits will also lower your risk of health problems. And this is one I think we do forget. Like, remember, we are trying to be overall healthy people and chronic lack of sleep can cause chronic illness and it increases your risk of all types of chronic disease. And that is really, really important to remember.
00:05:30
Speaker
that it's not just a case of being tired and looking a little bit wrecked. You know, it comes down to your long term health. The recommended amount is seven to nine hours sleep per night. You don't want to be getting less than seven hours sleep over long periods of time. now That doesn't mean you need to panic if you can't.
00:05:47
Speaker
You know, if you have a few nights here and there where it's five or six hours sleep, you know, you'll survive. It's not going to kill you immediately. But you do over the long term, you want to be averaging like I don't get nine hours sleep ever. My body actually won't even sleep eight hours very often, only if I'm, you know, maybe if I'm i'm fighting something or, if you know, I'm exhausted from a particularly stressful period.
00:06:05
Speaker
But in general, my body will wake me at about between seven and seven and a half hours. And that is the amount of sleep my body needs. But even if you think that you survive well on less than seven hours, your body needs seven hours. so And it might take time for your body to adjust over time to having that more sleep. But as you allow it and you put all these other things around it in place, you will see how your body naturally falls into the routine of the amount of sleep that it needs.
00:06:29
Speaker
And you'll get tired at us the same time every day. You'll wake up at the same time-ish every day. And maybe some of you are already in that position. But this myth of needing less sleep as we get older, it's not a myth.
00:06:40
Speaker
We don't need as much sleep as we get older, but we still need seven. So it just means when we're younger, we probably need nine. You know what I mean? So nine, eight, seven. And, you know, personto person to person, it can differ a little bit, but really we want to be getting as close to seven as we can. If you feel like you feel good on less, try having more.
00:06:58
Speaker
And then you might be like, oh, my God, have I been missing out on this level of feeling amazingness? You might actually just be surviving rather than thriving. So definitely worth giving it a good go.
Challenges Affecting Sleep
00:07:07
Speaker
When it comes to actually optimizing your sleep, first of all, let me just say that I know some people are listening and like Kate, fuck off.
00:07:14
Speaker
Like I have a baby at home. My baby does not understand sleep optimization and wakes me every bloody hour or whatever. Look, I know that that's a temporary life situation that is a little bit out of your control.
00:07:28
Speaker
Similarly, if you're going through perimenopause, it can disrupt sleep. If you are going through either of these stages of life, You know how much that affects your mood. You know how much it affects your energy levels. You know how much it affects everything else in your life.
00:07:41
Speaker
So you're probably agreeing with everything I'm saying in relation to the importance of it. And you're like, but that's a whole lot of use to me right now. So what I'll say is obviously it's not about being perfect. I'm like, yes, you need seven hours. You're like, fuck off, Kate. I can't get seven hours. I'm lucky if I get four or five. That's temporarily in your life. Your baby will eventually sleep.
00:07:57
Speaker
You will eventually get the right balance in place through your menopause journey where you will get sleeping again. In the meantime, while you're navigating these challenging stages of your life, it's just about sleep optimisation.
00:08:12
Speaker
Putting a good routine. around your existing sleep. If you're a bit like me, your kids are a bit older, you don't really have any excuse. You just might be a little bit lazy getting off the couch on time to go to bed like myself, you're busy doing shit and then you're like, oh my God, i need to go to bed. And then you're so wound up you can't sleep because you've been doing stuff.
00:08:30
Speaker
So if you're more like myself and you're like now at this stage of my life, I should be prioritizing my sleep. Like I don't have babies anymore. They're not my excuse anymore. I'm not yet in perimenopause.
00:08:41
Speaker
I'm not having hormonal changes that are waking me in the night or hot flushes or anything like that yet. So i'm like, right, well, maybe this is the time that I really should have a healthy sleep routine. And then as I navigate towards perimenopause, I will deal with it as I get there and I will optimise as best I can in that situation. So I'm not talking about being perfect.
00:09:00
Speaker
You yourself will know what stage you're at and whether this is something that you can really nail or whether it's something you need to just put the routines in place to optimise and manage what you can. OK, and that's really, really important. OK, so I'm just going to talk through some of
Morning Routines and Sleep Regulation
00:09:14
Speaker
these.
00:09:14
Speaker
So the first thing is set an up time midweek and stick to it. No snooze button. So this is hugely important. If you give yourself one rule around this, do not press snooze.
00:09:26
Speaker
Use that Mel Robbins five second rule. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, up. Up and out of bed, okay? Put your phone at the far end of the room. That'll make you get up and out of bed. Your morning routine is actually far more important than your nighttime routine. So stick to it no matter how crap your sleep was. And this is something that I learned to listen to a podcast a couple of years ago on a sleep expert.
00:09:48
Speaker
I can't remember where I listened to that podcast and who it was that was speaking, but it was a fantastic podcast. And anytime listen to a really good podcast now, I always save it because i I regret that I cannot find this podcast.
00:09:59
Speaker
But it was a sleep expert speaking on sleep and she spoke about how Your morning routine is more important than our nighttime routine when it comes to sleep. We always think about preparing for bed is so important, which it is, but your morning is actually more important.
00:10:13
Speaker
This still does not mean we need to create some crazy fucking morning routine where we have to, you know, go and have an ice bath and we have to meditate for 20 minutes and then we have to list 20 million things that we're grateful for. That's not what I'm talking about when I mean morning routine.
00:10:27
Speaker
When I mean morning routine, I mean that your phone is over the other side of the room with the alarm set. When your alarm goes off, you can't press snooze because you have to physically get out of the bed to turn off the alarm.
00:10:38
Speaker
In order to get out of bed, you go five, four, three, two, one, up, go. like No matter how shit you feel, do not get back into bed. Okay, those extra 10 minutes snooze will make no difference.
00:10:48
Speaker
So this is just hard initially, and then you'll be more tired for bedtime the following night. If you're consistent, you'll actually fall into a routine, a good routine, and it'll all balance out. So you might be tired the first morning or two, but then it's going to train your body to be tired at bedtime.
00:11:04
Speaker
So don't drag out that getting up in the morning. And once you get moving, you'll wake up and you'll
Creating a Restful Sleep Environment
00:11:10
Speaker
feel better. No screens in the bedroom. This is an obvious one. OK, so obviously with the blue light, it's leading your brain to think that it's still daytime.
00:11:19
Speaker
when you're trying to tell your brain it's time to go to sleep and, you know, secrete the correct hormones for us to actually be able to go to sleep. OK, so like no so scrolling as well, no screens. All of that gets done downstairs.
00:11:30
Speaker
So as soon as you enter your bedroom, think of it as your sacred space. And what especially when it comes to social media, I really want you to think about your bedroom being your private space, your safe haven away from the world.
00:11:42
Speaker
If you open your phone and you are looking at all these people all over the world, you're letting the whole world into your sacred space and you need to protect that because although you may think it's enjoyable, it's a stressor to our nervous system.
00:11:57
Speaker
We need switch off from the outside world. It's really, really important. So make that boundary for yourself and it will be the best thing that you ever do for yourself. It doesn't mean you're giving up social media. You're giving up social media in bed.
00:12:09
Speaker
Same thing in the morning. do not get on your phone in the bed in the morning. Make a new place in your house to do it. and Like make yourself a coffee and sit down on your armchair by yourself. If you do, if you really enjoy scrolling, that's fine.
00:12:21
Speaker
And you want to get up early and do it before your kids are up and you want to sit in a chair overlooking the sunrise or whatever you want to do and you want to have that to catch up on bits on your phone. but don't do it in your bedroom. like If I ask you of one thing, I feel like I've already asked you of one thing.
00:12:33
Speaker
If I ask you of another thing, it's this, OK? When you're heading to bed, set your alarm and leave your phone to the other side of the bedroom. It's such a good hack because not only like if you leave your bed beside your bedside locker, you are on your bedside locker, you keep reaching for it.
00:12:47
Speaker
And before you know it, you'll be on Instagram or Facebook or whatever. You'll find as you leave it over the other side of the bedroom, You will reach for it and it won't be there. You'll eventually lose that habit. Like obviously if you can leave your phone downstairs do, but I know a lot of us use it for our alarms.
00:13:01
Speaker
So set your alarm on your phone, leave it the other side of the room. It also helps with that five, four, three, two, one, out of bed in the morning. You have to turn off the alarm and you do not get back into bed. Then when it comes to bedtime, pick a bedtime and stick to it, no matter how exciting your Netflix program is.
00:13:16
Speaker
And I know that's hard. One episode, OK, and try to stick to this bedtime. Really do. So like, just say you're like, OK, 10.30 p.m. midweek is my bedtime. I go to bed at that time. I get to sit down.
00:13:29
Speaker
I watch an episode of something from 9.30 to 10.30. I turn off the TV and I go to bed. Just, you know, be strict with yourself, like I said, like you would with your seven year old or your 10 year old or whatever bedtime. OK, at the weekend, try and go no more than an hour or two over this. So like, you know, if you go to bed at 1030 midweek, staying up till midnight or whatever at the weekend will be OK. Like maybe you need to get up at six o'clock midweek and then, you know, you might get up till eight or nine at the weekend or whatever. So, you know, like it it balances out that couple of hours.
00:13:57
Speaker
But you what you don't want to be doing staying up for three or four a.m. m just what like binge watching shit and messing with your circadian rhythm, with the routine that you've worked so hard to build by fucking it up every weekend. Now, it's different if you got you're going to someone's wedding and you're up till four o'clock in the morning. Like, you know, that's the one but you're not not doing that every weekend.
00:14:13
Speaker
If you are going out every weekend till four a.m., it's probably going to be difficult to set a good sleep routine. But I know most people listening to this are probably past that stage of If you're like myself, I couldn't tell you the last time I stayed up till 4am. But in general, like it's quite easy for most of us with kids or even with older kids or grown up kids.
00:14:29
Speaker
We live quite a settled routine. And even if we are out with friends at the weekend, we're usually home kind of relatively decent hours. So just try to keep some sort of routine in place and not just staying up for the sake of it when you could just go to bed.
00:14:41
Speaker
That doesn't mean that you have to leave a party
Consistency in Sleep Routines
00:14:43
Speaker
early because, oh my God, my sleep routine. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm just talking about, you know, the ordinary everyday days. Consistency is key with sleep, exactly as it is for fat loss. OK, so we've got the bedtime.
00:14:52
Speaker
When you get into bed, read for 10 minutes. Now, don't listen to an audio book on your phone because then your phone's beside your bed. Audio books for when you're busy during the day or whatever, like a Kindle is fine because it doesn't have the blue light or just an actual book. Read for 10 minutes. and You can read for longer if you want.
00:15:10
Speaker
But ten minutes is usually plenty to get most people wound down and ready to sleep. If at that stage you struggle to go to sleep, a guided meditation or a sleep story is also a nice option instead of or as well as reading.
00:15:22
Speaker
You'll find endless free ones on YouTube. But again, then you're we're going into the territory of going on your phone, but you couldn't get the sleep story ready. Leave your phone over the other side of the room so you can still hear it and you listen to your sleep story or your meditation. You go to sleep. Now, if you want to subscribe to something, I highly recommend the Headspace app.
00:15:39
Speaker
There's another app called Calm as well, which are fantastic. that there's probably loads more apps now at this stage, but they're the ones that I'm familiar with, which will give you guided meditations and sleep stories. You can like listen to a story going to sleep and it's always got the relaxing music and like it's it's hugely helpful to just kind of get out of your thoughts and give you something to focus on while you go to sleep. No caffeine in the evening and try and have your water drank by dinnertime.
00:16:02
Speaker
There's nothing worse than being woke and needing to wee. And this is something like I always loved my cup tea with my two little Freddo bars in the evening time. Now that as I'm kind of getting closer to 40, I've had to move that to earlier in the evening. I kind of have to have it just after dinner.
00:16:15
Speaker
I can't have it at 9pm or anything anymore because what will happen is I will be asleep for about an hour, two hours maybe, and I will wake and eating to eat until instead of being a normal person, just getting up and going for a wee. I'll argue with myself for, I actually don't even know how long. i don't know whether I go back to sleep and then I wake up needing to wee again and i kind of fight with myself and I go, your grandkate, go back to sleep.
00:16:34
Speaker
I have this like back and forth and it disturbs my sleep, this needing to wee rather than being a normal person and just getting up and going to the fucking toilet. I'm like fighting with myself. So I'm like, my tea is actually disturbing my sleep. I also noticed that like the caffeine in tea used to never affect my sleep or affect my falling asleep, whereas now it does. And the sugar and the chocolate.
00:16:52
Speaker
So I've got become a little bit more sensitive to this as I'm getting older. So I don't have caffeine in the evening anymore. Again, you'll know yourself in relation to caffeine, whether it affects your sleep or not. You can kind of make that decision. But if you're like, I find it hard to fall asleep at night and you know that you're having cup tea at 8 or 9 p.m., try push it a little earlier or go decaf.
00:17:10
Speaker
Like if you're like trying to drink two liters of water a day, you should have another pint of water to drink. Don't drink it just before bed. It's going to disturb your sleep. You know, maybe just start fresh again in the morning. But in the next day, try and get your water in a little bit earlier.
00:17:21
Speaker
Another point, alcohol. Alcohol is not your friend but for so many reasons. But in relation to sleep, you may think it helps with your sleep. But this isn't sleep.
Impact of Alcohol on Sleep Quality
00:17:30
Speaker
So you might think, oh, geez, had a great night's sleep. I had three glasses of wine, slept like a baby. It's not sleep.
00:17:35
Speaker
If you have a fitness watch, have you ever looked at your resting heart rate after drinking? Even just one or two glasses, your heart rate spikes. Your body literally spends the whole night where it should be resting and restoring.
00:17:47
Speaker
trying to metabolize the alcohol. It's literally like, oh, this poison is in my system, no matter how little la amount of it is. Must break it down, must break it down, must break it down before it does anything else. And if you're having a few glasses before going to bed, that's what's happening when you're sleeping instead of your body resting and restoring and making sure it's really optimizing.
00:18:05
Speaker
That's what it's doing instead. And it's really, really important to note. So that's really all I've kind of wanted to say on sleep, you know, to think about all of those points. And even if from listening to this, if you could take one thing from this, pick the thing that you're like, that's an easy first step here. I could do this out of all the things I said, whether it's the alcohol, whether it's the tea, whether it's the bedtime, whether it's a five, four, three, two, one up, whether it's the phone across the room.
00:18:29
Speaker
Obviously, I'd love over time if you could implement them all. But as I know all too well, it's not a good idea to change everything at once. So take it step by step. But please, please do take your sleep routine and the optimization of your sleep as serious as you possibly can.
00:18:46
Speaker
And regardless of whether there's babies, there's perimenopause, whatever is going on in relation to sleep, start and be patient with
Conclusion: Prioritizing Sleep for Future Well-being
00:18:53
Speaker
yourself. it's not Everything's not going to be perfect straight away and that's okay. It takes time, but you will notice a huge difference in your overall energy and your overall health as you start to put this routine in place.
00:19:03
Speaker
And then just one little quote just to finish on from Tom Roth, which says, sleep is an investment in the energy you need to be effective tomorrow. So think of sleep as an investment.
00:19:15
Speaker
It's in your future you. So every night, yes, you're recovering from the current day, but you're also preparing yourself for the day ahead. And as you know, with investments, over time, they really add up.
00:19:26
Speaker
And the same is true asleep. OK, so just make the most of it. Do your best. I hope you found this helpful as always. If you did, please do share it with your friends and your WhatsApp groups on your stories. Tag me if you do and leave a comment if there's anything you would like to share in relation to the podcast.
00:19:42
Speaker
And obviously, make sure you're subscribed so that you don't miss the next episode. And I really, really genuinely appreciate every single person who listens to this podcast and listens to my rambles. And I look forward to chatting to you all the next day.
00:19:56
Speaker
you