I'm Hormonal | PCOS, periods, gut + hormone health insights

Pillow Talk: Simple Ways to Start Getting Better Sleep | Ep. 90

• Bridget Walton, Women's Hormone Coach • Episode 90

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We uncover the critical connections between sleep deprivation and hormone imbalances, revealing why inadequate rest might be sabotaging your health. Through practical guidance on optimizing your sleep environment and habits, we provide actionable steps to improve your hormonal balance and overall wellbeing.

• Cortisol and melatonin work in opposition—when cortisol is high, melatonin is low and vice versa
• Morning sunlight exposure helps regulate your circadian rhythm and signals proper hormone production
• Caffeine blocks adenosine receptors, temporarily masking sleep pressure but potentially disrupting sleep quality
• Poor sleep affects hunger hormones (leptin and ghrelin), increasing appetite and decreasing satiation
• Sleep requirements may increase during luteal phase and menstruation due to progesterone's effects
• Consider limiting food intake 3-4 hours before bedtime to prevent blood sugar crashes during sleep
• Simple interventions like reducing blue light exposure, lowering bedroom temperature, and using an eye mask can significantly improve sleep quality



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Speaker 1:

My friend, if you're still telling yourself that six hours of sleep is enough, you are lying to yourself. I know that you know sleep matters, but you keep pushing it to the bottom of your list. That's why, in today's episode, I will break down exactly how a lack of sleep can be impacting your hormones and give you a game plan to start fixing it. Welcome to I'm Hormonal, your source of information about women's hormone health and how to support your body. Naturally. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and I'm a certified functional hormone specialist and menstrual cycle coach. I am on a mission to hold these hormone conversations with as many menstruators as possible, because you deserve easier access to accurate information about what's up with your unruly menstrual cycle and with your fertility mysteries. Don't you think it's time that we figure this out once and for all? Hello, my friend, welcome to today's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and on today's episode, we're going to be talking about sleep. I know that you absolutely do not need me to convince you that sleep is important. We've been getting this talk from our parents since we were little kids, but it is so important for your hormone balance and what we'll talk through today will be really giving you an understanding of what's going on hormonally when you sleep, or rather, when you have a lack of sleep. What are the consequences? Maybe that will help you identify oh okay, well then that makes sense why I feel super hungry after a night of poor sleep. Anyway, we'll look at what's going on hormonally and then we'll talk a lot about what are some places that you can start. What are some things you can do in order to get better sleep. Oftentimes, when you are sleeping for more time, longer hours, that automatically results in better sleep because you're able to go through more or different phases of sleep. But anyway, we'll make it a little bit more practical and actionable, because I know that it is much easier said than done to just get more sleep. So that is what is ahead for us today.

Speaker 1:

If you come back on Thursday for the mini episode, I'm going to be talking you through it'll be kind of workshop style talking you through how you can build a good bedtime routine. I think this is so important, especially if you are somebody who is traveling all the time and I know this myself from traveling for work for many years that when you are away from home, it is so hard to have a normal routine, and well one. You know, maybe you want that routine for, like the sake of your you know, gingivitis or lack thereofof, let's focus on flossing people Weird joke, thanks for bearing with me on that one. But it also can be really helpful as far as just feeling grounded and not feeling like things are so chaotic. You've got your good routine, so that's coming up later in the week.

Speaker 1:

Let's talk about what are the hormones involved in sleep and wake, that cycle, circadian rhythm. You may already be familiar with these if you've listened before, but the main two hormones that are in play here are melatonin and cortisol. You may recognize cortisol as being your stress hormone. It is. It is the one that can go up and down depending on how stressed you are as it relates to, like, emotional, mental stress, but it's also the hormone that helps us to wake up in the morning. So we don't want particularly low levels of cortisol because we want to have energy to do things, but we need a balance there. Now, cortisol and melatonin are like know, frenemies on either sides of the teeter-totter here, because when cortisol is high, melatonin is low and vice versa. They can't really both be high or both be low it's. You know they're on opposite sides of the teeter-totter. Melatonin is the hormone that helps you to go to sleep, right. So cortisol, generally highest in the morning, going down throughout the day, of course. Melatonin is generally the highest in the evening, or at night rather, and then low while you are awake.

Speaker 1:

Now, one of the best ways to straighten out these two hormones if, for example, you were traveling and in a new time zone would be exposure to sunlight. We are basically plants, not through photosynthesis reasons, but I think of us as being plants in that if you are tired, go outside. If you want to get ready for bed, go outside. Just exposure to the light. And and right, even though we can't see it for the most part, we can't detect it with our own eyeballs but there are different amounts of red light or blue light that comes from the sun at different times of day. So in the morning and in the evening, that's when there are higher amounts of red light. In the middle of the day, higher amounts of red light. In the middle of the day, higher amounts of blue light, and so that red or blue balance, that's what is going to be indicating to your brain. Hey, girl, time to go to sleep soon Time to start producing melatonin if it's at the end of the day or vice versa. Now it's also worth mentioning that, when it comes to blue light, you probably are familiar with blue light coming from your screens We'll come back to this later too but that's why looking at your screen can be problematic for your sleep or for your stress cycles, because a lot of times our screens are emitting blue light. Also, led lights emit blue light. So if you are in the office at 8 pm with a million LED lights on overhead, then that's just telling your brain hey, dog, middle of the day, and maybe that's contributing to an inability to fall asleep or disrupted sleep once you do finally get home and conk out disrupted sleep once you do finally get home and conk out.

Speaker 1:

Another thing I wanted to share with you about melatonin is that serotonin is actually a precursor to melatonin. So serotonin is a hormone neurotransmitter that is important for your mood and overall mental health, right, but serotonin is a precursor to melatonin. So it's interesting that adequate gut health and serotonin production because serotonin is made in your gut that can be really important for melatonin production later in the day. There's nothing really for you to do or know that. Okay, how do I make more serotonin in my gut other than just having a healthy gut? And if you have questions on that, go back to, like three weeks ago, the podcast episode where I talk about nutrition and gut health. But just really interesting, right? What's going on with one hormone? Serotonin can impact how much melatonin you make that night, can impact how much melatonin you make that night.

Speaker 1:

If we're talking about sleep, we absolutely have to talk about caffeine. But how does caffeine actually work in your body? What caffeine is doing is temporarily blocking adenosine receptors. Now, adenosine is the component that is causing this sleep pressure to build up. You know, sleep pressure right, like when you're like, oh my gosh, I can't stay awake. This is sleep pressure. It builds up all the time, every day, you know, I guess, except for when we're sleeping right, but adenosine is building up, building up when you take your double shot latte, though, or drink your double shot latte. Your double shot latte, though, or drink your double shot latte, your espresso martini, it's blocking temporarily those adenosine receptors so that you're not feeling the effect of that adenosine buildup, you're not feeling as tired, but of course, that can result in the crash afterwards.

Speaker 1:

I always like to say I think that it's best to use caffeine as a tool. So if you need more energy or if you need you know you you're driving at night like let's be safe and driving, have whatever coffee or whatever it is that works for you. But I think that using caffeine as a tool in that way is a really great strategy or something to keep in mind, as opposed to maybe using it as I guess, really like a crutch right. Or if you are somebody who has to have two cups of coffee a day, of course there's nothing inherently wrong with that, there's nothing inherently bad about that. But is there a way for you to start swapping out some of those caffeinated beverages with a decaf version or anything with less caffeine, so that you can actually use the caffeine as a tool when you do need it?

Speaker 1:

One other thing to note here when it comes to caffeine, you might recall that caffeine will increase your stress hormone, cortisol, and it will also increase adrenaline. So if you are somebody who is oftentimes anxious, or if you do have a lot of stress, then just remember you know caffeine can be exacerbating that and just aware of the tie there, let's shift a little bit and talk about how poor sleep can impact what's going on with your appetite. Because when you get less sleep than your body is asking for, that will impact two hormones leptin and ghrelin. These ones aren't talked about quite as often but, long story short, leptin and ghrelin are the hormones that control your hunger cues and also satiation or lack thereof. So this is why, potentially, after you lose out of sleep, lose out on sleep for a night, the next day you're noticing that whatever you're eating, maybe it's the same that you have every day, but you just need more, want more, and that's okay.

Speaker 1:

Well, let's think about why does this happen? And that's okay. Let's think about why does this happen? Well, right, historically or, you know, I guess, evolutionarily right. Let's go back, like many, many, many years, if you were losing sleep, it was probably because something stressful was going on. So your body, long story short, is saying okay, it's obvious that we need more energy. If stress levels are high, cortisol is high because we haven't gotten as much sleep. Also, leptin and ghrelin are off their normal game. We need more energy. We need to eat to fuel whatever chaos is happening. So maybe that kind of makes it make sense as far as why your body is doing this or reacting like that. It's a defense mechanism, essentially to shuttle glucose to your cells.

Speaker 1:

If you listened to the recent episode about blood sugar regulation, this last final detail will be really familiar and salient for you as well. But a lack of sleep can impact your blood sugar regulation. You're going to be less sensitive to insulin, along the same lines of what I had just explained. What this can look like in real life or in your day-to-day is afternoon energy crashes or, I guess, really anytime energy crashes. Of course, if you didn't get great sleep last night, then that's not going to be a huge surprise that you are tired midday. But being able to recognize that this is happening and focus on meals that will support stable blood sugar levels that will be more satiating by that I mean more protein and fat forward than carb or sugar forward that's going to be a W for you, if you can keep that in mind.

Speaker 1:

I want to talk next about sleep requirements, as it relates to different times in your cycle, and I'm curious what you think, if you have any kind of mental notes on this for yourself. Do you need more sleep at certain times of your cycle than others, or do you get the same amount of sleep every single night? Or you know, by and large, you get the same amount of sleep throughout your cycle, regardless of which phase you're in. For a lot of menstruators, you'll need or feel just naturally inclined to get more sleep during your luteal phase and during menstruation. Not a huge surprise. There the energy levels are a little bit lower.

Speaker 1:

I tried to look up and see what the studies say as far as averages. I remember hearing, I remember reading, learning that, on average, gals need about an hour more sleep during the luteal phase and menstruation, but I couldn't find any studies that supported that. I did find one resource, though, that reinforced two sides of this coin of how does progesterone impact what's going on with sleep. Because progesterone, which is the hormone that is predominant in the second half of your cycle, it has this really like comfy, cozy, even kind of sedative effect. So I was thinking, oh okay, well, that's why you want, or need, more sleep in your luteal phase.

Speaker 1:

But upon doing some deeper digging, I was reminded that progesterone has this effect of increasing your body temperature. Right, that's why, after ovulation, if you're taking your temperature, you'll notice that your temperature rises for the rest of your cycle and for some gals out there, that increase in body temperature can actually make it less comfortable or less smooth when you want to fall asleep. So I thought that was really interesting. Progesterone is like, hey, girl, take a nap. And also like, all right, let's warm things up. So, oops, sorry if that impacted your sleep. So sorry, just hit my mic. Hope that wasn't loud for you guys.

Speaker 1:

I know that that wasn't a super clear tip, but I wanted to share all of that with you about melatonin and cortisol, about caffeine and adenosine, some notes on leptin and ghrelin and also sleep requirements throughout your cycle, just so that you can kind of put this constellation together of what are all these things impacted by my sleep and what are other factors? Right? This certainly doesn't include factors of how active are you? Are you out and about? Are you by out and about, I mean like doing hard workouts? Also, worth noting that your brain is a huge consumer of energy in your body, right? So if you're doing a lot of really tough mental tasks, that will certainly impact your sleep as well. So you know that we learned this back in, like middle school probably, but there are a lot of things that are impacting your sleep.

Speaker 1:

The good news, though, is that getting more sleep, getting better sleep, is one of the best things that you can do to impact every single system in your body, impact how you feel, and you can see these changes really quick. So that's the silver lining here. Right, sleep, super important. Would encourage all of you, even for myself, right, to do a regular reflection of am I getting enough sleep? How can I get more sleep, how can I get better sleep? All right, friend, let's pivot now and walk through what are some things that you can do. Start doing. Stop doing that can be helpful for your sleep quality.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to list off like an array of suggestions for you. Please don't try to implement every single one of them. You know this week, pick three to five, maybe that are a good fit for you. Implement those consistently and then add on some more. You know that if you try to add on too many things at one time, it's not going to work. So this is something that I work on with my one-on-one clients a lot. Right, how do we figure out what is the right number of changes for you, what's reasonable for your life, what feels like a good, kind of easy win, and once you start racking up those wins and see the benefits of good sleep, it'll make it so much easier to implement the sort of second or third phase of adjustments. So keep that in mind and get an accountability buddy or maybe your partner or your child or whoever it is that you chat with about your health related everything Say, hey, these are my goals. I want to get better sleep. These are the three things I want to start doing this week. Help hold me accountable to it. All right, I'll get off my how to form good habits soapbox now and talk about sunlight.

Speaker 1:

If you want to support your circadian rhythm, support your sleep, then getting sunlight on your skin, in your eyes, as early in the day as possible, I think, is a great first step. In the morning, make time to go for a walk. Maybe you can eat your breakfast outside. Maybe you can drink your coffee outside. Maybe you have a ADM meeting with your coworker every Thursday and you can say, hey, can we just? Why don't we just have our meeting outside? That would be great, let's just chill out there.

Speaker 1:

I know that's easier said than done, maybe, but again, the reason why this is going to be a good idea and really helpful for you is because in the morning, when your eyes are getting this formula, this potion of sunlight and different amounts of red light or blue light, it's signaling through your eyes to your brain hey, girl, it's the morning, we need to be cranking up cortisol production. That's what we're supposed to be up to. I'm sure the communication isn't exactly like that, but you see what I mean, right, getting sunlight throughout the day is a great way to signal to your brain when you need to be producing which type of hormones. I guess there is an asterisk here that if you are a shift worker, if you are working at night, or if you have to wake up I don't know twice a week at 3.30 in the morning to go to the airport, well then, keep this in consideration, but kind of in reverse, so that you can I don't know, I guess play a trick on your circadian rhythm. I don't know, that's not my specific focus, but you see what I mean how understanding these principles can be a little bit more transferable.

Speaker 1:

If you can't get breakfast or you can't get a morning, walk outside, all good, let's shoot for lunch outside, let's shoot for dinner outside. Spending more time outside is overall great for your stress too, and if your stress is in check, then that's going to be supportive of your sleep. It's totally worth considering and making a plan for how you can avoid screens, avoid blue light after sunset. You may already have the blue light filter on your app or if you don't, then just do a quick goog to see how can I add the blue light filter to my phone. Basically right, it'll just make it a little bit more yellow toned or like sepia. Maybe this is a good opportunity for you to switch from scrolling on Instagram into the night to reading a physical book. It'd be a great opportunity to avoid some blue light. Maybe you just say, hey, I'm going to turn off the TV at nine. That's great for your light exposure and also great for your overall goal of getting more sleep, getting into bed earlier.

Speaker 1:

If you do need to be on your computer at night because I mean, certainly I'm not acting like I don't look at my computer or my phone probably every single I mean definitely every single day after sunset. But considering, can you get blue light glasses If you wear glasses? Well, if you wear glasses every day, you probably know this already, that you can get your prescription on them, or you can just get standalone blue light glasses that don't have any sort of correction in them. I mentioned LED lighting earlier too. This is literally a first world problem that we've created these lights that are efficient for these big buildings but they're not super great for your circadian rhythm. So if you have overhead lighting in your house, maybe consider dimming that down or like getting some kind of you know, mood lighting and just lowering the light levels in the evening. Okay, we've talked a lot about light. That's all I've got for light.

Speaker 1:

The next thing I want to encourage you to do would be up for light. The next thing I want to encourage you to do would be just being aware of the desserts or meals you're consuming shortly before bed. That could be spiking your blood sugar. For many folks who wake up in the middle of the night, it can be because your blood sugar is falling really low. This could be more relevant to you if you have insulin resistance or otherwise have dysregulated blood sugar levels.

Speaker 1:

You say eat your meal. You eat, I don't know, pasta with garlic bread at 9 pm when you get home from the airport, when you get home from work. Well, it'll take a couple of hours for your body to digest that right. Your blood sugar goes up and then, when it's ready to come back down, maybe it goes too far. It'll take a couple of hours for your body to digest that right. Your blood sugar goes up and then, when it's ready to come back down, maybe it goes too far. And that's why you wake up in the middle of the night and you're like why am I so alert right now? But it's because when your blood sugar drops low, that's going to bring up cortisol so that you can get up, get a snack, fix your blood sugar, kind of thing. So the actual recommendation here would be to avoid desserts or avoid meals shortly before bed. That could spike your blood sugar. Another way to frame this would be saying okay, well, can you stop eating three to four hours before you go to sleep? So I'm normally in bed, hopefully asleep by 10. So can I eat dinner. I'm normally in bed, hopefully asleep by 10. So can I eat dinner, finish eating before seven. That's kind of what I shoot for. I don't beat myself up if I eat at eight one day, but I'm always trying to shoot for a dinner time between six and seven.

Speaker 1:

The next thing I want to recommend to you would be to just get a little eye mask. Now this is, I guess, really coming back to the light thing. I told you guys I was done with lights but getting an eye mask. Or even I just wear one of those silk bonnets for my hair. Oh, sorry, I had to make again, team. I wear one of those silk bonnets for my hair, but I just pull it down over my eyes so I have my little mask. This is really clutch, especially when I'm traveling. You never know. Are the curtains on your hotel room actually going to close all the way? Is there going to be a huge I don't know a light up billboard outside of your window or what's out there? So this is like solid recommendation. If you don't have an eye mask, I'm sure that there is one for $19 or less on the internet that will show up in your door, at your door, in two days.

Speaker 1:

Another thing that I kind of like or I guess this is really a pro and con about the eye mask is that I love in the morning when I can wake up just naturally, because it starts to get a little bit brighter in my room Now at some point in the night. My bonnet, my little mask will just fall off as I like rustle around. So that works out for me. But it's just you know. Actually, let me tell you about a client who recently she was telling me she was on vacation and just waking up in a really bright room. Every day she was like I felt amazing in the mornings, whereas at home she's normally feeling really tired, and so instead of once she moved she was going to put in blackout curtains. But she was like, actually I'm going to hold off on these blackout curtains because waking up with this light in my room really helps me feel better and have more energy for the day. So that's just to say too how can you, is there a best of both worlds? Is there a way that you can have it be really dark at night and then brighter in the morning? I'll leave that one up to you to figure out. But a little bit of food for thought there and maybe a good opportunity to say, hey, everybody is unique, everybody is bio, individual. What works for me might not be comfortable for you, or vice versa. So there's a little bit of trial and error to see really what best suits you. Two other things here suits you Two other things here.

Speaker 1:

Consider the temperature in your room at night. What is it now? It's March, so here in the US at least, we're getting into summer soon and I'm already thinking about okay, I need to replace the fan in my room because my current fan is broken and I have to get a new fan in my room before it's summertime. And I'm just toasting in my bed at night, because your body temperature will naturally go down at night. Melatonin will help to cool down your body a little bit. It can be really uncomfortable to sleep in a room that's too warm. So this isn't rocket science, but last summer, were you annoyed at how hot it was in your room? Because, if you were, don't be like me. Just go ahead and get something that's going to help keep you cool and you will absolutely thank yourself for it.

Speaker 1:

The last thing that I want to mention to you, because I haven't talked about how much sleep is ideal per night, but recommendations would say that you should shoot for at least seven hours every night, and if you're not yet getting seven hours of sleep, definitely make a plan to get enough sleep. Don't just assume that it's going to happen, that you're going to do it. Make baby changes, set a timer on your phone so that you can get into bed maybe 15 minutes earlier on average than you do right now, and then, once that's down and easy, you can back it up another 15 minutes Again. Something that feels like an easy win. I mentioned this earlier.

Speaker 1:

But once you start doing a good job at your list and you're like, oh okay, this feels good and I'm sleeping better, I'm feeling better, like I want to keep up with this momentum, that will be really helpful for you. I see this with my clients all the time. I know that this is how my brain operates too, and I'm excited for you as you implement some of these changes and start getting better sleep and feeling better and just understanding how all of these things tie together. That is really it. That's all I've got for you today. I hope that this was helpful, a little helpful background on what's going on hormonally when it comes to sleeping. Hopefully it had a couple of reminders really for you about what you can do to get better sleep and really encourages you to prioritize Prioritize your sleep. You got this, you can do it. I believe in you If you make some of these changes and you're feeling really good. I would love to hear from you. You can connect with me on Instagram at Bridget Walton, and let me know how you're feeling. Instagram at Bridget Walton, and let me know how you're feeling Now.

Speaker 1:

My last note here I have a rebrand that is coming up in May, which I'm so excited, in part because it will mean I have a whole new array of free resources for you guys. So stay tuned for that coming out in a couple of months. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you for making it all the way to the end here. I can't wait to see you later this week for a little mini episode. If you loved today's episode and got something good out of it, make sure you subscribe so that these episodes show up automatically in your feed. No work needed on your side. Let's put it on autopilot. As always, I need to give you my reminder that the information I share with you here is for educational purposes only, and it should not be used as a replacement for medical advice or diagnosis. Now, if you are, on the other hand, in the market for some one-on-one support, then I would love for you to take me up on my offer for a free strategy call. You can find these links and more in the show notes.