Your hormones are accountable for countless changes that occur inside your body – they help your body to develop, they control your craving, they help reproduction and they control your rest and sleep. It’s not really surprising then that various hormones can influence your sleep patterns in various manners which is the reason why I will be showing you how your hormones cause insomnia, how they impact your sleeping patterns and what you can do when hormone imbalance happens.
What is Insomnia?
Insomnia is a sleep disorder caused by the inability to get the right amount of sleep.
The hormones that aid sleep and how hormone imbalance can cause insomnia
Estrogen
This is a hormone that can be found in humans. It’s generally connected with reproduction and plays a vital part in women experiencing menstrual period.
As you progress through life, your estrogen levels can change, especially during the menstrual period. As you approach menopause, this hormone levels can decrease so much that it causes various insomnia symptoms like irregular menstrual periods, mood swings, hot flashes and pain in the muscle and joint.
Obviously, these symptoms can affect your sleep and cause insomnia as hot flashes at night can disrupt your sleep and you might find it hard to wind up before bed due to mood swings. It will interest you to know that estrogen also determines how your body uses magnesium, a vital nutrient that aids sleep.
Progesterone
When progesterone levels begin to reduce, maybe due to menopause or menstruation, it can cause problems with your sleep and result to insomnia. As regards menopause, it might be worth taking a supplement or use Celeste London holistic nutrition program to help correct this hormone imbalance. However, if you experience low levels of progesterone during menstrual periods, it is sometimes telling you that your estrogen levels are too high, in which you may begin to have symptoms like fluid retention, painful periods and mood swings.
Testosterone
In women, testosterone gradually decreases over a period of time. Low levels of testosterone can be related with insomnia. For instance, testosterone levels waver throughout the day and it’s been revealed that levels are at their highest during the lightest stage of sleep.
If you are already experiencing insomnia, a deplorable cycle can emerge. It can affect your testosterone levels, if you are not getting the much-needed REM sleep. If your testosterone levels dip, it can be related to insomnia symptoms and so the deplorable cycle continues.
But what can you do if you find you’re lacking testosterone? You can try Celeste London Holistic Hormone Nutrition Program where she will teach you how to increase your testosterone levels using foods that are rich in zinc and vitamin D.
Insulin
When the level of your blood sugar rises on a constant basis, your body can become insensitive to insulin. This means your body must produce more insulin to have the same impact, which can result to diabetes.
So, what does this have to do with your insomnia?
Just like testosterone, sleep and insulin can sometimes exist in a deplorable cycle. You see, insomnia can raise the levels of your blood sugar and promote unhealthy cravings and eating habits which will in turn boost the release of more insulin and eventually cause more sleep problems as your blood sugar levels fluctuate during the night.
Cortisol & melatonin
It’s very easy to disrupt this delicate cycle of hormones and sometimes, increase in cortisol levels are at fault. If you are stressed, you may find it difficult to sleep as this particular feeling can act as an accelerator for your flight-or-fight responses, which in turn activates the production of cortisol, lowering your melatonin levels.
Eating sugary snacks before bedtime can affect your sleep too and increase your need for insulin, thereby increasing your levels of cortisol, as this hormone also helps in regulating your blood glucose levels.
Also, certain gadgets can reduce your production of melatonin. You know melatonin is usually produced as a response to a lack of natural light. Night-time is the right time for you to think of sleep but, if your optic nerves notice light that are similar to Ultraviolet light, it can make your hypothalamus to believe that it’s still daytime and therefore you mustn’t sleep. Unfortunately, most gadgets produce a blue light wave that has this particular effect. So, scrolling through social media on your phone before bed can cause to insomnia.
Thyroid
When your thyroid gland is either too active (hyperthyroidism) or not active enough (hypothyroidism) you might experience some problems with your thyroid. These two conditions come with their long list of side effects and they are related to poor sleep and insomnia.
Let’s begin with hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism can make you start to show signs of an irritable feeling where you experience rounds of heart palpitations and sweating. The increased release of thyroid hormones in some women can act as a trigger for your nervous system, making you feel restless and as a result, find it hard to sleep and experience insomnia.
On the other hand, hypothyroidism is often related with feelings of fatigue and sluggishness. Your body is not releasing enough thyroid hormones and this makes your metabolism to start becoming sluggish. Now, you may think that fatigue may make you sleep more but this isn’t so, as hypothyroidism can sometimes boost your risk of suffering from insomnia – for instance, it’s discovered that around 30% of people with hypothyroidism experience insomnia
If you know you are experiencing symptoms of a thyroid imbalance, it is important that you talk to Celeste London. She is a holistic hormone nutritionist and will be able to discuss further holistic hormone nutrition treatment which may help you balance your hormone and reduce any insomnia problems you might have. You can book a consultation with her here – https://calendly.com/hellocelestelondon/
