Sleep is vital for us to have a strong body and a happy life. It also is important for cellular repair and even to have a good memory. Factors like stress, too much screen time and caffeine can sabotage your sleep but often overlooked are hormones which can be at the very foundation of your issues. These chemical messengers regulate your sleep-wake cycle and operate behind the scenes to regulate your internal clock as to how much rest you actually get. When hormones are out of balance your whole body can suffer.
What hormones are at work when it comes to sleep?
Your sleep-wake cycle, or circadian rhythm, is an internal clock that governs when we feel alert and when we feel sleepy. This rhythm is mostly controlled in the brain’s hypothalamus and responds to environmental cues like light and darkness which signals glands to release hormones that help you wind down.
Melatonin is a well-known hormone when it comes to sleep. It is produced by the pineal gland and the levels begin to rise in the evening at sunset when light levels drop. This signals your body it’s time to wind down and prepare for sleep.
Melatonin however peaks between 2am and 4am, is suppressed by exposure to blue light on your phone and is easily disrupted. If you have an irregular sleep schedule, too much screen time or even certain medical conditions it will be harder to fall asleep or even stay asleep. So often melatonin is used as a supplement to help people sleep.
The opposite of melatonin is cortisol. This is produced by the adrenal glands and helps you stay alert. Cortisol rises in the early morning at first light in a healthy functioning body and peaks around 8 to 9am getting you ready for your day.
These two, when out of balance, can play havoc with your life. Too much cortisol at night (often due to stress or anxiety) can cause insomnia and too little cortisol in the morning can have you waking up and not feeling rested.
Sleep and diabetes
If you tend to have insulin and blood sugar issues this can interact with your hormones and also affect your sleep. This is why a high carbohydrate food at night can sometimes make your insulin spike and keep you awake because it inhibits your melatonin release. Then your blood sugar can crash during the night and you suddenly wake up, wondering why. It has been found that people with insulin resistance or diabetes often have poor sleep quality while stable blood sugar supports a better sleeping pattern. This is why your eating habits are an important part of your sleep cycle.
Menstruation and Menopause
Add to this your normal estrogen and progesterone levels, and if you are a woman your menstrual cycle, and you can have a horrible insomnia cocktail sometimes. Estrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate throughout your menstrual cycle and this can also impact your sleep in a big way. Estrogen can increase the REM (dream) stage of sleep, can help maintain a stable body temperature and can increase serotonin production which in turn can increase melatonin.
Progesterone fluctuations can make you feel sleepy but drops before menstruation which can lead to you being unable to sleep and tossing and turning. This is why before your period you may have sleep issues. Of course, menopause has other issues because the sharp fall in both these hormones has you with one leg sticking out of the bed due to hot flushes. Either way you wake up tired and frustrated.
What happens is that when hormones are out of balance you will get such issues as insomnia, sleep apnoea, premenstrual dysphoric disorder (huge hormone fluctuations causing mood and sleep disruptions) and menopause insomnia.
Men and testosterone
Of course, we can’t forget men who also suffer with sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea often due to lower testosterone levels which contribute to their tiredness, moods and lowered libido. However, don’t be fooled that testosterone does not also sometimes play a role in female deep sleep patterns to bring about that rested feeling. The cycle though is that if you have low testosterone levels you will have sleep issues and poor testosterone in turn creates sleep issues. This is a vicious cycle that needs careful diet and supplementation to break.
Thyroid issues
Also let’s not forget the thyroid Hormones T3 and T4 that regulate our metabolism because if you have hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid) that can cause insomnia, restlessness, and night sweats while hypothyroidism (underactive thyroid) can lead to excessive sleepiness, depression, and poor sleep quality. Often people don’t even know yet that there is a thyroid issue and think they have a sleep issue. That’s why visiting a naturopath who can analyse all your disruptive issues to work out what is happening to your health can support.
Suggestions for a good night’s sleep
However, there are many things you can do that will help you get a better night’s sleep and assist in balancing out your hormones. Firstly, have a set sleep schedule. Try to go to bed and wake up at similar times to keep your circadian rhythm regular. Also limit your screen time as blue light will damage your melatonin production.
Also important are your stress levels so find ways to manage your stress. Practice meditation and mindfulness, learn to journal as a way to manage your frustrations or explore other therapies that can relax you. Regular exercise can be helpful here as not only will it help you manage your frustrations but also regulate your insulin and cortisol.
If you add to this a healthy, wholesome diet in tune with your sensitivities as to what is causing you inflammation in your body, keeping check of your heavy metals load, lowering your caffeine and alcohol levels and eating well before bedtime it makes a great recipe for a good night’s sleep.
What do I do about supplements?
Regarding your supplements, magnesium is a great go to in order to help you sleep. So is melatonin, but you should not be self-prescribing or relying on these when your lifestyle is out of whack. Talk to an accredited natural therapist to help you make sure you are taking the best supplements and eating the proper foods. They can help you get a system in place designed specifically to suit your needs. That’s why it’s important to get regular check-ups – blood tests or even sleep studies if your sleep is way out of whack.
So, you see that night’s sleep that you are consistently missing out on is not something you should gloss over. You will not catch up on it tomorrow or next week. It could be part of a major issue which only gets worse and finally could get out of hand. Don’t put it off. Attend to it and make sure your hormones are in balance and YOU are doing all you can to ensure a good night’s sleep. If it isn’t working then hasten down to see a professional and soon you can be snuggling under the covers and waking refreshed.
Imagine how much more energy you will have in your day to create the wonderful lifestyle you deserve.
Yes, you read the headline right. Our habits and the food we choose to eat are slowly harming our health. They could be causing us a myriad of illnesses as we age and sometimes even before we age. We all have habits that we know are not in our best interests yet we keep doing them and we all know that much of our food is sprayed or processed in some way and that all this is lowering our immunity as the years go on.
Let’s start with our habits.
There are tests that you can do that will show what vitamins and minerals you are deficient in. At my clinic I have chosen to do saliva tests as hair tests can sometimes carry residuals of pollution, shampoos, hair dyes etc. A good natural test can tell you what foods you are sensitive to, meaning which foods cause inflammation in your body. This is not an allergy test where you have an immediate allergic reaction to the food. This is a test to see what is causing the underlying inflammation in your body which over time will build up and cause you many unforeseen illnesses.
It is such a difficult process sometimes explaining this to my clients. Say [Josie] comes for a saliva test and the test shows that she is deficient in vitamin C and magnesium and her estrogen level isn’t right and she is lactose intolerant as well as wheat, yeast intolerant and also sensitive to grapes, eggplant and carrots all of which she loves. These are usually only a few of the list of things that show up on a test. What this means is that Josie needs to take a month to start to cut out the foods she is sensitive to and this will reduce her bloating, acidity or any other symptoms she may have regarding her health. Of course, this will really take longer than a month but the symptoms will start to go. As well as this Josie needs to take the correct supplements, in the correct balance to rectify what has already been upset in her system over the years.
The problem is that Josie has HABITS that have formed over the years and whilst Josie is health conscious the subconscious pattern that has been driving Josie to eat her bread and cakes over the years is so deep a pattern for her its hard for her to break it. But Josie will try. And in the next weeks she slowly starts to cut the food out and starts to feel better BUT after a few months the die hard patterns sneak back in.
So, Josie’s immunity is going up and down. Josie gets better a bit, then eats her bread and eggplant and a few grapes here and there that she shouldn’t be eating and before you know it, she is not so well again. This is how our habits sabotage us.
Add to this the gluten free mistake so many of my clients make.
They think that gluten free is wheat and yeast free. It’s NOT the same. Supermarkets though will push the gluten free though as being the healthy option because it’s a new source of money for them from the health conscious and this glosses over the fact that you are STILL eating wheat and yeast. Don’t fall for this as it will not get you inflammation free.
Now add to this that Josie uses certain products from the supermarket to clean her house. We all love a clean house but how many chemicals are you inhaling when you spray that mould remover or use the wash up liquid in the kitchen? What about the rain falling on your head as you race to the car? What pollution is in the water in the rain coming down on us and what is in the air we breathe?
This article is not to make you fear what is out there. Fear does nothing for us but freezes us in our motivation and stops us changing or moving forward.
What we need is action!
Not just lip service or an article. We need action.
We need to take action to get healthy and stay healthy.
If we take up this challenge it will work and it’s the best challenge you can take up because its for you, your family, your kids and everyone else you love.
Our health is slowly being harmed by our denatured ways, our fast foods, our supermarket packets and we need to just stop supporting this. You and I are the Josie example. You and I must find out what is right for our health and do it. It is so important to find someone who you can trust with your health to lead you on a natural path to detox and become healthier.
In short, there is no way you can avoid the ‘harmful substances’ in our foods and environment unless you follow the A, B, Cs of your results. The gist of it is that is the kind of environment we live in. The more you look after your health the better your natural immunity will be.
Here are some wonderful immune-supporting herbs and nutrients to consider during the winter months: olive leaf extract and Echinacea, these are especially good at the first sign of a throat tickle, quercetin, and essential vitamins like B and C. If your immunity tends to dip in the colder months, starting your support early can make all the difference.
Also check in with your naturopath and have a saliva test done. Find out what is upsetting your system and causing inflammation and start to work on how to get rid of these intruders in your life once and for all.
