Can’t Sleep? It Might Be Your Hormones!

Dr. Naomi Ha, ND

You’ve probably heard about the circadian rhythm, your body’s biological clock, and how it helps to regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Can’t Sleep, at night when it’s dark, it signals your body to release melatonin to promote sleep, and in the morning, when light hits your eye, your body is stimulated to release cortisol which helps to kickstart your day. You may have even taken melatonin to help you sleep better on the nights when you’ve felt restless or can’t sleep. But did you know that your hormones also play an important role in supporting quality sleep?

For women especially, our bodies rely on the perfect balance between predominant sex hormones, estrogen and progesterone. For those who have been experiencing irregular periods, whether due to underlying conditions such as PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) or the perimenopausal transition (the years of hormonal disruption that can start as early as your late thirties!), it is very common to see elevated levels of estrogen compared to progesterone. This relative progesterone “deficiency” is what can potentially be affecting your sleep. You might take hours to fall asleep, or wake up multiple times during the night. You might also notice feeling very restless and wake up the next morning still feeling tired. Can’t Sleep ? How can we fix this, you might ask? By instilling a pattern of regular ovulation!

Progesterone is the hormone that is produced in abundance only after ovulation. This means that in order for your body to make sufficient progesterone to promote quality and restful sleep, support healthy mood and ease anxiety, among many of its other functions in the body, your body must’ve gone through the entire process of developing a dominant follicle which then releases an egg during ovulation time (usually mid-cycle). For women with underlying hormonal imbalances which may be affecting their fertility, energy, including thyroid dysfunction, progesterone might not be present at all.

Can’t Sleep? depending on your identified hormone imbalances, through lab testing, cycle tracking and basal body temperature monitoring, your ND might recommend that you take a combination of herbs such as Vitex agnus castus (Chaste tree), nutrients such as inositol and berberine or even counsel you about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT). Can’t Sleep? Requesting lab tests from your doctor that may help to identify an under-functioning thyroid, insulin resistance or low progesterone can also be helpful to guide your practitioner towards determining an appropriate protocol to prescribe so we can get back to ovulating regularly and sleeping better. At Naturopathicliving medical solutions we work with our clients to provide holistic care.

References:

Caufriez A, Leproult R, L’Hermite-Balériaux M, Kerkhofs M, Copinschi G. Progesterone prevents sleep disturbances and modulates GH, TSH, and melatonin secretion in postmenopausal women. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2011;96(4):E614-E623. doi:10.1210/jc.2010-2558

Kamenov Z, Kolarov G, Gateva A, Carlomagno G, Genazzani AD. Ovulation induction with myo-inositol alone and in combination with clomiphene citrate in polycystic ovarian syndrome patients with insulin resistance. Gynecol Endocrinol. 2015;31(2):131-135. doi:10.3109/09513590.2014.964640

Li Y, Kuang H, Shen W, et alLetrozole, berberine, or their combination for anovulatory infertility in women with polycystic ovary syndrome: study design of a double-blind randomised controlled trialBMJ Open 2013;3:e003934. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-003934

Rafieian-Kopaei M, Movahedi M. Systematic Review of Premenstrual, Postmenstrual and Infertility Disorders of Vitex Agnus Castus. Electron Physician. 2017;9(1):3685-3689. Published 2017 Jan 25. doi:10.19082/3685

Reddy S, Reddy V, Sharma S. Physiology, Circadian Rhythm. [Updated 2021 May 9]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2021 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519507/