Sleep Away The Extra Weight?

Was watching The Today Show while helping The Husband get ready for work this morning.... And I saw a segment called "Snooze And Loose! Sleep Away The Weight!"  It was all about these women and a study that showed the correlation between getting a decent amount of sleep, the hormone "ghrelin," and your appetite.

According to the segment, in order to effectively lose weight, all one needs to do is subscribe to the following activities:

1. Go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day, and try to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep. Okay, so I am not really much of a night owl.  I am usually in bed and asleep by midnight at the latest (lately).  But I have been random with my wake-ups times, mostly because I was sick last week.  I was sleeping till nearly 10am most days.  But today I was up by 7:30am.  So if I am asleep by midnight each night and up by 7:30am, that is a consistent practice.
   
2. Start a routine for "bedtime."  Stretching for a few minutes...  Hot bath... Reading... I do all of these before bed already.
3. Control caffeine and alcohol. They recommend no caffeine after 2:30pm, and no alcohol at least three hours before bed.  So, given that I should have one glass of red wine a day, that means that I should have it at lunch time now? Or late afternoon?  DONE!

They say that by following these "best practices," your body is able to better control the hormones that prompt you to eat a little more each day than you need to, in order to stay awake and energized. And because you are using rest to help keep you energized (rather than coffee drinks), your body is able to stabilize the weight loss, making it more natural and permanent.