Struggling to sleep even though you’re tired? Feeling run-down during the day? Do you find yourself craving specific foods when you wake up in the morning? These are common problems in the general population. While you might link it to a stressful day or perhaps a headache, there’s sometimes more concerning underlying causes you should be aware of.
Hormones are often an overlooked factor when people struggle to sleep. A healthy hormonal balance may help you sleep better. When hormones are disrupted, on the other hand, you may find it’s difficult to sleep. It creates a viscious cycle as your circadian rhythm also becomes disturbed. In this article, we explore the relationship between hormones and sleep, and look at how balancing these chemical messengers can be very helpful.
The Importance of Proper Sleep
Sleep is a critical part of life. When you don’t get enough sleep, there are several consequences that can develop.
After a poor night’s sleep, you feel tired and fatigued. You may have the need to take a nap during the day just to get through everything. Your cognitive functions are also not what they should be. Perhaps you struggle to focus at work, or you find it difficult to pay attention to something specific for a long time.
Over time, however, sleep deficiency can cause serious issues. Researchers have linked poor sleep to a higher risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, just to name a few. Your body starts to suffer at a cellular level when you don’t get enough sleep.
To truly understand the role of sleep, you need to know what happens hwne you’re asleep. During sleep, your body goes through several stages. This includes:
- NREM: Also known as non-rapid eye movement sleep, you spend about 75% of the time you’re asleep in this stage. There are three phases for this stage of sleep, including transition, light sleep, and deep sleep.
- REM: Rapid eye movement sleep is part of the sleep cycle. You usually enter REM sleep around 90 minutes after you’re asleep. It lasts for approximately 10 minutes at first. As you go through sleep cycles, it gets longer.
Each stage has its own role to play. Together, they help your body recover, ensures memory consolidation happens, and gives you the ability to get ready for the day ahead of you.
Hormone Disruptions and Sleep
Disruptions in your sleep is not just something that can affect your wakefulness and energy levels the next day. While it’s linked to diabetes, heart disease, and several other health problems, at a deeper level, sleep deficiency can also result in hormone disruptions.
These are some of the hormonal effects that can happen when you don’t get enough sleep:
- Ghrelin levels can increase, which results in a stimulation of your appetite. This can make you crave for carbohydrates, which can lead to weight gain.
- Leptin levels may decrease. This makes it harder for your body to know when you’re full while eating. It can result in overeating.
- Cortisol can also become disrupted. The release of this hormone generally follows a specific rhythm. If you struggle with chronic sleep deprivation, it can result in elevated cortisol levels. This can further contribute to your sleep-related problems, as well as cause low-grade inflammation in your body.
- When you’re in deep sleep, your body releases a relatively large amount of gorth hormone, or HGH. Poor sleep reduces how much growth hormone your body releases. This can have an impact on muscle repair and your body’s ability to recover.
- Research also shows that sleep deficiency makes cells less sensitive to the presence of insulin. This hormone is important for ensuring glucose can enter cells from your blood circulatory system.
How Androgenix Can Help?
While there are many causes behind poor sleep, when you experience accompanying symptoms, it’s important not to overlook the potential role of hormones. Hormonal disruptions can affect your sleep, energy metabolism, and even your cravings. At Androgenix, we understand the complex roles that hormones play, and help our patients get a better view of their hormonal balance.
If you suspect hormones are behind your symptoms, reach out. We can conduct a comprehensive series of tests to help you determine if your hormones are at healthy levels. Our team also assists in creating personalized treatment programs for patients who can benefit from certain treatments.
