Final answer:
Getting 8 hours of sleep can indeed help in maintaining or losing weight, as proper sleep regulates basal metabolic rate and overall energy balance.
Step-by-step explanation:
It is true that getting 8 hours of sleep can help you maintain or even lose weight. Insufficient sleep, or a chronic sleep debt, can lead to decreased levels of alertness and mental efficiency. Additionally, a lack of sleep impacts the body's energy balance and metabolic processes. The body’s basal metabolic rate (BMR), which is the rate at which the body converts food into energy when at rest, can be affected by sleep. Proper sleep helps to regulate the BMR and therefore assists in maintaining or losing weight. Moreover, physical exercise contributes to weight loss through burning calories and raising BMR by building extra lean tissue, which in turn burns more calories even during sleep. Therefore, the interplay between sleep, exercise, and metabolism is important for controlling body weight.