Struggling to sleep and feeling groggy in the morning? Sometimes, it’s not your fault, unseen changes may be affecting your rest. Your hormones are a primary culprit in poor sleep. These minor signals in your body affect the way you sleep. This can make you feel super sleepy during the daytime. Later, you discover you’re awake as soon as it’s dark. If you are in this annoying situation nightly and in your dispute with your spouse, you are not alone, as millions of people have been in this situation. Today, we will explore the factors contributing to this and ways to help you return to sleep.
Not getting enough sleep makes you tired, fuzzy-headed, annoyed and distracted at school or work.
What Are Hormones?
Let’s talk about what these small elements truly are. Imagine your body as an intricate system. Similar to how a network requires overseers, hormones in your body are essential for managing its operations. They are named chemical bosses, hormones, because they are like little mail carriers, bringing secret letters. They run around and send short messages to all parts of your body. These messengers regulate your heart’s beats, your stomach’s digestion and your brain’s sleep and wakefulness. There are various kinds of these messengers in you. Some of these messengers control your body’s physical development, while others activate your fight-or-flight response – what happens when the wrong orders are sent? The entire factory becomes very perplexed. When there are shifts in levels, this is exactly what happens. “Shift” simply refers to the fluctuation of levels.
How Do Messengers Control Your Bedtime?
Sleep is a very important job. When you sleep, your body heals itself by repairing tired muscles and clearing your brain so you can think the next morning sharply. Two main body messengers help you sleep well. One is called melatonin. Melatonin is the sleepy night time messenger. It signals to your brain that the sun has gone down and it is time to rest. The other messenger is called cortisol. Cortisol is the wide awake morning messenger. It tells you to open your eyes when morning comes. Sometimes, other things get in the way of this cycle. If you feel stressed, your body makes mistakes. Your body makes too much cortisol and suppresses your melatonin, leaving you staring at the dark walls. Finding deep sleep is tough when your mind races.
Big Life Changes That Shift Your Sleep
Your body goes through many stages as you grow older. At each new stage, the messenger levels jump all around. These big jumps can really mess up your normal bedtime. Let us look at times this happens in your life.
Growing Up Fast
As teenagers develop, a surge in new hormones quickly alters their inner body clock, causing them to naturally want to stay up later and sleep in the next morning.
Monthly Cycles
Women have a monthly cycle with two key hormones. Progesterone, which promotes calmness and sleepiness, decreases before a new cycle, making it harder to fall asleep.
Having A New Baby
Pregnancy causes significant changes in a mother’s body, including increased hormones to support the baby. A pregnant woman may feel very tired. After birth, hormone levels drop suddenly, disrupting sleep.
Getting Older
As women age, their monthly cycles end, known as menopause. This leads to lower calming hormones, causing hot flashes that make you feel very hot and sweaty, often disrupting sleep.
Signs Your Sleep Is Changing
How do you know if these messengers are the problem? Look for these signs.
- You wake up covered in sweat.
- You feel wide awake at midnight.
- You feel angry for no reason.
- You cannot fall asleep.
- Your bedtime gets later.
How Integrative Psychiatry and Wellness Can Help You
Sometimes, your body needs extra help from an expert. Integrative Psychiatry and Wellness focuses on improving your health through various services.
- Psychiatric Evaluations: We listen to find the real problem.
- Medication Management: Safe medicine helps balance your body.
- Therapy Sessions: We help you talk about your stress.
- Mental Health Treatment: We clear up your brain fog.
We offer easy video visits from your computer or phone. We help people in California, Oregon, Washington and Colorado.
FAQs
Q. Can hormones really keep me awake?
Yes, they sure can. Think of hormones as the little bosses inside your body. When these bosses get confused, they send the wrong messages to your brain. This can keep your eyes wide open even when you are very tired.
Q. What is the sleepy messenger called?
It is called melatonin. This friendly messenger tells your brain that it is dark outside. It tells your body that it is time to close your eyes. If your other hormones are too high, they might stop melatonin from doing its job.
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