Transcript

Hello everyone. And welcome back to the hormone hub . Today we are going to talk about getting a good night’s sleep. So this is a really common thing that I hear about from women, women in the Facebook group, clients. And it’s something that, you know, I have to really watch as well. So if you can’t sleep at night, you are not alone.

While sleep is so essential for our health. It can also be really elusive. And it’s often one of the first signs and symptoms of perimenopause, you know, and naturally quickly followed by exhaustion, fatigue. And it can also last well beyond menopause. And you know, let’s be real here, did it ever actually come back to normal after we had kids. And today I wanna have a look at why you’re struggling to get a decent night’s sleep and what you can do about it.

So when we think about sleep, it’s one of the fundamental building blocks towards health. Okay. So clinically, poor [00:01:00] sleep’s been shown to increase the risk of weight gain, blood pressure, cardiovascular disease , it can affect the way we perform at work. You know, we get that brain fog, you know, naturally we’re more fatigued. It can contribute to more hormonal imbalances, it can accelerate the aging process. You know, be a, a precursor for diabetes. It can create mood swings, anxiety, depression, you know, like it’s fun times hey. Now, while sleeping tablets and even antidepressants are commonly prescribed for women who are struggling to sleep, this might help with short term relief, but really to make a lasting change and to, you know, get that good, deep restorative sleep that we need, we need to have a look at the underlying causes of why we’re waking up in the first place otherwise, you know, it’s gonna be a constant struggle. So let’s jump in. Shall we? All right. So some of the most common reasons why [00:02:00] you can’t sleep at night. So first up we’ve got hormonal shifts. So if we think of our body, every major process in our body working in cycles.

So from short term cycles, such as, you know, our blood sugar regulation, that’s, you know, pretty much happen straight away. Then we’ve got our 24 hour circadian rhythm cycle. We’ve got our longer monthly reproductive cycle and yes, even if you are no longer menstruating, if you’ve been through menopause, if you’ve got some kind of c ontraception that you’re using and you’re not having a monthly cycle, you are still having a monthly cycle. You know, you don’t have to have a period to have a cycle and all of these cycles are interconnected. So when one of these cycles is disrupted, there’s a cascade effect. So for example, if we have too much sugar, this can disrupt our sleep.

And then that can disrupt our reproductive cycle. Now during perimenopause, it’s the reduced progesterone levels that affects the quality and also the [00:03:00] duration of our sleep. And in men, the dropping testosterone levels has a similar affect. Now , sleep can also be disrupted by stress and our adrenal function.

So for so many women, stress is a daily challenge. We take on, you know, we’ve got work, we’ve got relationships. We’ve got kids, we’ve got partners, we’ve got financial pressures and this constantly adds up. And this leads to that, and, I’ve talked about this, you know, a hundred times and I’ll talking about a hundred times more, this chronically elevated cortisol levels.

So cortisol is designed to come in quick burst and give us that fight or flight response. But when it’s chronic and it’s chronic daily stress, it leads to this long term elevation of cortisol, which disrupts our circadian rhythm. So cortisol is naturally meant to spike early in the morning. And this is so we can wake up refreshed and energized, ready to go.

Then our cortisol level should naturally drop throughout the day [00:04:00] and then melatonin kicks in and this increases, it makes us sleepy before we go to sleep. So when we are sort of in this chronic stress state, it flips this whole situation around. So cortisol remains elevated into the evening and it doesn’t allow melatonin to kick in.

So this is why we get that, you know, we are really tired, but we feel really wired at nighttime. This is why a lot of women get that second wind at night. So we really wanna make sure that we’re in bed, you know, on our way to sleep before that second wind kicks in. And then finally, you know what happens in this chronic stress state is cortisol drops through the night and that’s why, you know, we have trouble, we feel so tired in the morning and we struggle to get out of bed. A longside stress, we’ve got anxiety, nervous tension, you know, this impacts our sleep and you know, this sort of triggers our nervous system to always be on.

So again, leaving us feeling tired, but that wired [00:05:00] feeling where we can’t sleep. Now, obviously we’ve got our hot flushes, our night sweats, and you know, this is one of the most common disruptors of sleep and, you know, probably one of the most annoying, . So during sleep, our body moves through different phases or levels of sleep.

And then any disruption to these phases, like an unwanted thermic event or a fancy name for hot flush. It causes the body to come out of these phases. And this is what gives us that chronic insomnia, you know, night in night out because we can’t relax into those sleep cycles. Now, hot flushes come from that drop in estrogen.

And, you know, like this is a, a natural thing. It’s a natural transition for our body to start producing less estrogen, and this is where sort of our production of estrogen moves away from our ovaries and our adrenals kick in and start to, to produce e strogen instead. So what we wanna do is to reduce the [00:06:00] impact of, you know, hot flushes and night sweats.

We wanna stimulate this natural sort of process. But the thing is like, if our adrenals are already prioritizing the production of our stress hormones, it’s going to be harder for us to overcome, you know, those night sweats. So that’s just something to, to bear in mind, stress, you know, it all links back to how well we manage our stress.

Okay. So another thing that can keep us awake at night is getting up for the loo. So this can come from simply drinking too much liquid in the evening. So we want to sort of, if we are aiming to drink two liters of water a day, which we should be, we wanna aim to, you know, finish this up mid-afternoon. Okay. Now over 50% of women over the age of 50, also suffer from some form of urinary urgency or incontinence. So if you are having to get up more than twice during the night, this is gonna interrupt or disrupt your normal sleep cycles and [00:07:00] make it harder to get back to sleep. So if you are waking up, you know, once is one thing, but you know, if you are waking up more than once during the night, I can highly recommend a visit to a pelvic physiotherapist for help with this. Okay. And then finally, another, you know, thing that we’ll look at today is restless leg syndrome. So, this is where if you’ve got it, you’ll know, you know, you lying in bed and then you’re asleep and your legs will just kick around on their own and wake you up.

So it affects around 20% of women during perimenopause and menopause. And it’s really common. Now there’s lots of causes of restless leg syndrome. But, you know, quite commonly it’s a nutritional deficiency. So it’s always worth getting your iron checked because low iron can be linked to restless legs.

 Certainly magnesium can help, either supplements or topically. So, you know, rubbing oils and stuff into your legs, as well as zinc and B vitamins as well. But, you know, iron’s sort of the key one there that we wanna check out [00:08:00] first. Now, please do not supplement with iron unless you’ve had your blood levels checked. Too much iron can be just as detrimental as not enough. 

Okay. So what can we do for a better night’s sleep? So first up let’s balance out your blood sugar because when we get that, you know, waking up at two, three in the morning, it can be due to a drop in our blood sugar. So our blood sugar drops and our body as a safety mechanism wakes us up.

So what we wanna make sure is we are including some protein, some healthy fats, and, you know, small amount of carbs with your evening meal. Okay. This is gonna help support your blood sugar through the night. Now, next off is switching off your lights and devices. Okay. So blue light is notorious for interrupting sleep patterns, but actually it’s all artificial light has the potential to influence our sleep patterns.

So, you know, [00:09:00] ideally we would wake up with the sun. Look at the sun first thing in the morning, and we would go to bed when the sun goes down. Now, you know, obviously this is not practical for modern life. But we can mitigate the impact that artificial light has on our sleep to an extent.

So things like, you know, dimming, your lounge room lights, you know, for about 30 to 60 minutes before bedtime. Switching off the TV. Stop scrolling on your phone or tablet ladies. These are, that’s the worst thing, is just that cause you are, you’re constantly stimulating your brain, by flicking, you know, scrolling through your phone.

 Or if you absolutely can’t resist, you know, turn down the brightness at least, or switch it to night mode. Okay. Definitely keep your phones, your devices out of the bedroom to avoid that temptation to scroll through at three o’clock in the morning. Now, the amount of requests I get to join the Facebook group that come at two or three o’clock in the [00:10:00] morning is phenomenal.

Ladies, I take notice of these things. Okay. I’m watching. I know what you’re up to. All right. So the next one is noise. Like, you know, if you can’t make your bedroom as quiet as possible, cause you’ve got traffic, noisy neighbours, snoring partner, you know, think about trying some earplugs, or, you know, you can try white noise or soothing music.

 This can mask those irritating sounds. So you just wanna keep the volume low. So at lows sort of level, so you’re not waking yourself up as well. All righty, next up, keep it cool. So an elevated core body temperature, as we sort of said, you know, this is associated with insomnia. So if your bedroom is too warm, you know, and it’s warm enough to raise your body temperature, this will make it harder to fall asleep.

 And also you’re likely to experience a decrease in the quality of your sleep as well. So we wanna aim for a comfortably cool room, and this helps [00:11:00] you fall asleep and also enter those deep stages of sleep. So ideally around 20 degrees, if you’re able to control the temperature of your room, and if you are suffering with hot flushes and night sweats, you know, this is a little bit trickier.

So we wanna use like light, layered bed clothing, so you can peel layers on. Rather than peel, you know, kick off a great big doona and then you’re cold and then the doona’s on and the doona’s off, you know, those, having those like light layers, you know, can, can help a lot. All right, I’m gonna go there. Alcohol, just in case you needed another reason to lose the booze.

Alcohol has been shown to negatively affect sleep. So while we think we are drinking to relax and wind down a bit, you know, when we’ve got hot flushes, night sweats, sleep apnea, snoring, disrupted sleep patterns, it’s all exacerbated by drinking. Okay. So, you know, obviously, I want you to have a [00:12:00] life. I want you to, you know, not feel like the end is nigh.

So if you do choose to have a drink, what we wanna ideally do limit it to one or two days of the week and keep it to one or two drinks. And try, if you can, have a break of at least two hours before bedtime, just to give your body a chance to recover. Okay, so caffeine is another one. We all know, you know, it’s not rocket science there, but it’s all too easy though.

If we haven’t had a good night’s sleep to reach for that big, large double shot latte to pick us up the next day, only for it to then, you know, affect our sleep, making us crave more of it the next day, affecting our sleep. And so it goes on. So if you aren’t willing to give up your morning coffee and you know, okay, I’ll put my hand up.

I’m not loving the idea of it that either, but try, and if sleep is an issue for you, try and stick to just one single shot. And [00:13:00] ideally we want it around 10:00 AM. So this is our cortisol levels are high when we first wake up in the morning, we want to, you know, have them start to drop.

This is the ideal time to have coffee. And always after breakfast. Okay. So this is gonna have, you know, less of an impact on your adrenals and on your stress hormones, or, you know, opt out or in the afternoon, you know, go for sort of herbal teas. Rooibos tea is naturally caffeine free, and just be mindful, you know, in the afternoon and the evening of the caffeine that’s in green teas, black teas, and also ladies, in chocolate.

Okay. So exercise, exercise during the day can definitely help us sleep better at night. It also helps with stress. It helps with our overall mood and, you know, just general health, but if we’re exercising at night, it can stimulate our body, so what we wanna do, if the only time you can fit in your [00:14:00] exercise is in the evening, you know, go for something that’s restorative, something meditative like yoga, Tai Chi. These are all really good options here. Now try and stick to a schedule. So your body’s like one giant unconscious clock. So we want to go to bed around the same time every night. Now this can help you in the long term, fall asleep faster and sleep better.

And having that, we wanna create that consistent sleep wake cycle. So we are conditioning your body and, you know, result in better energy during the day and a better sleep at night. So just like we had to train our babies when they were little, we had to train our babies to sleep through the night.

We also need to like train ourselves to sleep through the night. So when we’re in the pattern, when we’re in a schedule, like a bit of a routine, this certainly helps. So, you know, if you sort of set yourself up with a bedtime routine, [00:15:00] and this is letting your body know that it’s time to go to sleep. So having a warm shower, having a cup of herbal tea, you know, reading or listening to a meditation, you know, these are all really good sort of sleepy options.

 So this means no binge watching Netflix until all hours. So Netflix isn’t going anywhere. We can always catch that up on the weekend. All right. And then when we are in the throes of the, you know, time ticking over at 2, 3, 4 am when you’re tossing and turning, it can be really easy for your mind to wander, keeping you awake.

Now, if you’ve got what I call like a busy brain and you know, you wake up in the middle of the night, your brain is go, and you’ve got a thousand things to think about, grab a piece of paper and a pen and just write it all down. You know, it doesn’t need to make sense. Doesn’t need to be a to-do list we’re doing a brain dump out of your brain [00:16:00] onto a piece of paper. Okay. So, and then what I want you to do, go back to bed and focus on your breath, and I want you to relax, you know, and we wanna make sure that out breath is longer than in breath. So what I mean, like that is let’s breathe in, so let’s do it now. Okay. Breathe in for four, hold for two and breathe out for five.

Okay, then breathe in for five, hold for three, breathe out for six. Okay. And what this does is this helps relax and calm that nervous system. So have a play around with what works for you. Try a meditation app to help you drift off to sleep, you know, particularly if you struggle going back to sleep, there’s some really good free ones.

So insight timer is one of my favorite ones. [00:17:00] Buddhify is really good. Balance is another great one. Okay. So then a couple more things to try. So. Think about beautifying your bedroom. Alright. So your sleeping environment has a big impact on how easily you relax and fall asleep. So if your room is clean, clutter free, minimal noise, minimal light, you know, we can do this wherever we can.

That’s great. And, you know, ideally we are spending at least eight hours a night in our beds, so it’s worth investing in some, you know, nice fresh sheets or, you know, washing your sheets, hanging them on the line, drying them in the sunshine. So, you know, it feels inviting and luxurious when you get into bed. So probably also a good time to assess, you know, do you have the right pillow?

Do you have the right mattress? You know, if that’s making you feel uncomfortable, you know, and you’re not getting a good night’s sleep, it is a hundred percent worth investing in decent bed wear because you know, like I said, eight [00:18:00] hours a night, every single night in your bed, you want it to be the right thing.

Okay, so the next one is natural sunlight. So sunlight does wonders for our body, especially our circadian rhythm. So if you can, first thing in the morning when you get up, if you can get outside, have a look at the sunshine, take your sunglasses off. Look at the sun without sunglasses, as early as possible in the morning.

This signals your brain, that it’s daytime. It’s time to wake up. So then, you know, it sort of supports that circadian rhythm that we talked about earlier. Even if you can, you know, get out for a walk on your lunch break, or even just eating your lunch outside, you know, this exposure to natural light helps improve your daytime energy and also helps you get to sleep faster at night.

Now in terms of supplements, I always get asked, you know, there’s lots of different herbal supplements out there, you know, a good quality magnesium supplement at bedtime can help. This helps relax our [00:19:00] muscles, relax our nervous system, which, you know, then promotes relaxation and sleep. We wanna aim for like a decent sort of dosage is 300 to 400 milligrams. And my preferred form of magnesium is in a bisglycinate. Okay. So not the citrate, not the orotate not all, you know, some of those cheaper ones, but you know, the, the decent bisglycinate, epsom salts are also a form of magnesium. So, you know, having an epsom salt bath can help, or even just, you know, soaking your feet in epsom salts can help, you know, and this sort of helps relax your whole body. Lavender is, you know, beautiful, essential oil that can promote relaxation, alleviate insomnia, you know, just a few drops of lavender oil on your pillow, or, you know, through a diffuser if that’s safe to leave on overnight. Okay. So I hope this has been helpful.

And, you know, while you still [00:20:00] need all these good sleep habits and I’ve given you some great tips there to get started, you know, if you are struggling to get a good night’s sleep, it is definitely worth looking at the causes. So I’ve given you some of those reasons why we wake up, because by investigating the cause, this is gonna help you create a lasting and more effective solution, so you can get a good night’s sleep every single night. And if you would like some help, I am here to help you are most welcome to book in for a hormone help call. This is where we can have a chat about what’s going on for you specifically. And, you know, if you wanna find out more about the well balanced woman program, which is our 12 week signature program, we can certainly chat about that.

I can answer any questions you’ve got, you know, because sleep is certainly something that we address in the well balanced woman program. Because like I said before, you get a good night’s sleep, everything is better. All right my loves, I hope this has been helpful. And happy, [00:21:00] happy goodnight, nighty nights to you. Have a good night’s sleep everyone.

Bye for now.