When I was in college, every time finals would roll around, my suitemate and I had a battle cry about how we were going to get through the intensive study period before the exams. We used to say that, even though we’d be giving up the rest of our lives to study for those few weeks, we’d at least be “smart and skinny” when it was all over. After 4 rounds of studying for finals, did that ever happen? Smart, maybe yes; but never, ever skinny. In fact, despite all the hours studying and all the hours we didn’t sleep, we actually gained weight during that period.

Why did this happen? And what does this have to do with thin and chic French women? It has to do with sleep. And you might’ve guessed by now, since we try to be timely in this blog, that May is Better Sleep Month. Read on.

All those years ago when I was taking final exams, what we thought was this: that the less sleep you got, the more your metabolism was revved up and using calories, so you should be losing weight. Turns out we were way wrong. In recent years, many studies have shown that lack of sleep actually leads to weight gain as well as other health problems.

As for French women, remember in the recent bestselling book French Women Don’t Get Fat, the author, Mireille Guiliano, told of several reasons why women in France do not gain weight including eating small portions, walking everywhere daily, drinking a bit wine, and dining slowly? Well, now there’s another reason. In the Wall Street Journal of May 5, 2009, a reporter, David Gauthier-Villars, discusses a recent study that shows that the French spend the longest period of time sleeping per night than people in any of the other industrialized nations. And it’s almost a certainty that this extra time spent sleeping helps with French women’s ability to keep their weight down. So there you have yet another reason to get more sleep!

Sleep is a very important aspect of having a healthy lifestyle – not only the amount of sleep you get each night, but also the quality of sleep and how regular you are in getting it. If you’re having a problem sleeping, particularly if you’re sleeping less than five hours per night, discuss it with your primary care practitioner. Or read this recent article in U.S.News and World Report about how to sleep better; go to:

http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/sleep/2009/03/03/10-ways-to-get-better-sleep-and-maybe-cure-your-insomnia.html.

In the next blog, as we promised this past Friday, we’ll tell you how the swine flu epidemic is related to bicycle riding.