Sleep issues

I wanted to post this on Thursday, but couldn't because I had not finished enough research to do it.  I had a bit of an issue Monday and Tuesday night with tossing and turning all night plus shoulder pain (always shoulder pain: at times more than others).  Well Wednesday was a low carb day for me and for the 1st time in quite a while I really struggled with the diet.  I was staying hungry and feeling very unsatisfied.  So I kept wondering if my sleep issues had anything to do with my hunger.  Now I realize 1-2 days of not sleeping should not cause any serious problems, but what you do not know about me is that I have a very difficult time sleeping every night.  Most nights I wake up MANY times because of should pain and am unable to go right back to sleep.  For me a good nights rest is one where I only wake up a few times and can go back to sleep with fairly little effort.  It is rare for me to sleep past 6:30am no matter what time I go to bed.  So I do not even get to sleep in on my days off to make up for any lack of sleep the previous night(s). 


Well guys this is what I have found:


From webmd.com:
“It’s not so much that if you sleep, you will lose weight, but if you are sleep-deprived, meaning that you are not getting enough minutes of sleep or good quality sleep, your metabolism will not function properly,” explains Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleepand the clinical director of the sleep division for Arrowhead Health in Glendale, Ariz.
Exactly how lack of sleep affects our ability to lose weight has a lot to do with our nightly hormones, explains Breus.
The two hormones that are key in this process are ghrelin and leptin. “Ghrelin is the ‘go’ hormone that tells you when to eat, and when you are sleep-deprived, you have more ghrelin,” Breus says. “Leptin is the hormone that tells you to stop eating, and when you are sleep deprived, you have less leptin.”
 More ghrelin plus less leptin equals weight gain.


From Wikepedia.com
The absence of leptin (or its receptor) leads to uncontrolled food intake and resulting obesity.
Sleep-Duration
A study ^[30] appearing in the journal PLoS Medicine suggests that short sleep duration is associated with high levels of ghrelin and obesity; ghrelin appears to be a factor contributing to the short sleep duration and obesity. Scientists have uncovered an inverse relationship between the hours of sleep and blood plasma concentrations of ghrelin; as the hours of sleep increase, ghrelin concentrations were considerably lower, thereby potentially reducing appetite and avoiding potential obesity.


I know I could add a ton to this, but I think it is enough to say your body needs quality rest each night.  So if you are huffing in the gym, eating a proper diet, and still holding onto the weight; you need to look into other aspects of your life that could be holding you back.  It could be your sleeping pattern, stress, or other factors.  I have been meaning to do a bit on cortisol and probably will when I get a chance.  It is something I think every person over the age of 30 should know about.