Trying to learn to burn calories while sleeping may seem like a dream come true. The truth is that your body will burn some calories while you’re asleep, and with the right tricks you can increase that significantly. If you’re wondering about increasing your resting metabolism enough to get thin, you will likely need to introduce other changes as well. With regular exercise and a healthy diet, the following tips can help you hit some weight loss goals.

How to Burn Calories While Sleeping

1. Get a Good Night’s Rest

While it may seem counter-productive, you will burn more calories if you are asleep than if you are lying in bed wide awake. This is because your brain is very active during REM. Also, during this stage of sleep your body’s internal temp increases, meaning your body is working harder to create heat. In fact, there is a Brazilian study that shows men lose as much as three times the amount of weight when asleep for eight hours as opposed to lying awake for eight hours.

For the best REM sleep, stick to a consistent schedule so your body knows it’s time to sleep. Get in the habit of turning off the TV or computer a while before bed to help your body relax, and create a dark room.

2. Build Solid Muscles

The best way to increase calories being burned across the board is by increasing your muscle mass with exercises specifically for weight training. You can get handheld weights or a gym membership. You can also resistance train with your own body for no-fee, use push-ups, sit-ups, squats and more to get the same effect.

It will take some time to build enough muscle to notice a significant increase in calorie burning while you sleep, with the right routines, you can increase your metabolism up to 15 percent. This will help you burn more calories when you exercise and after.

3. Turn Down the Heat

How to burn calories while sleeping? There are some scientists who believe that furnaces are linked to obesity, and say if you lower your house’s heat by several degrees you may shed pounds without any real work. This is because your body will need to work harder to maintain a normal body temperature, thus burning more calories.

The process behind this is called non-shivering thermogenesis, which is linked to brown fat. White fat makes most of your adipose tissue and brown fat is very different. It is highly active and burns calories while regulating your body temperature.

Research shows that this fat can burn an extra 100-200 calories in colder weather and works best when you wear light clothing. It isn’t advised that you shiver the night away as a new diet plan, but lowering your thermostat by a few degrees can make a difference.

4. Eat Frequent, Small Meals

You can increase your metabolism and burn more calories while sleeping by eating small meals throughout the day. Your body actually burns calories when digesting food. Your metabolism will also slow down if you’re hungry. If you snack or have small meals every few hours, you will boost your metabolism and keep an appetite. You should try for a small snack every three or four hours. Keep the meals small so you don’t eat much and only eat when hungry. Aim for getting 30 percent or less of your calories from fat and limit saturated fat and sugar. Try to snack on fiber-rich food such as fresh fruits and veggies as well as whole grain.

5. Go to Bed Satisfied

If you’re hungry and skipping a meal, your body will go into starvation mode which lowers your metabolism. A small, healthy snack before bedtime can be an excellent way to keep your metabolism up. How to burn calories while sleeping? Before bed, try snacking on some fruit or high-fiber cereal. Remember if you’re not hungry before bed, then to skip the snack.

• Quit Drinking Alcohol a Few Hours Before Bed
• A glass or two of wine with dinner is fine, but give your body a break from it before bedtime.
• You want to let your body metabolize the alcohol before bed, otherwise you won’t go through the deep stages of sleep, which can be a problem. You want to reach REM sleep, a deep stage, in order to burn the most calories and get the best rest.

6. Daily Exercise-Just Not Before Bed

Regular exercise is good for anyone wanting to burn calories. That said, it’s still not a good idea to do this a few hours before bedtime. This is because exercise can release endorphins and get people energized. This may not be good when you are trying to rest. Exercise can increase your body temperature, making it hard to get some sleep.

7. Sleep in the Buff

Yes, there are health benefits to sleeping nude. Psychology Today even points several out. The body will stay cool, promoting an increase in the healthier brown fat, which uses more calories. If this isn’t for you, keep the bedroom cool and enjoy the same benefits. This is another way to try about how to burn calories while sleeping.

8. Darken Your Room

Sleeping with light on doesn’t just hamper a good night’s rest; it may lead to an increase in weight. The American Journal of Epidemiology published a study suggesting people who sleep in dark rooms have 21 percent less likely a chance to be obese than those who have light in their bedrooms.

9. Put Your IPad Away

There is research suggesting electronics in the bedroom have a link to weight gain, the more you have, the fatter you may be. This is particularly true with children. The Pediatric Obesity journal showed that children who sit in front of bedtime TV or a computer won’t get sufficient rest and end up with poor lifestyle habits. There are studies indicating that students who have just one electronic device have 1.47 times the chance of being overweight as those without one in the bedroom. This increases to 2.57 with children who have three or more devices.

10. Enjoy a Hot Shower

If you like to bathe in the morning, you should note that a hot shower is an ideal way to ensure you will sleep better. The warm water can relive tension and help soothe sore muscles. You will see a rise in oxytocin, or the ‘love’ hormone, which soothes. The warm shower boosts your body temp, giving you a dip when you take the towel off, and this helps your entire body relax. You can take a hot bath if you prefer.