How to wake up to better sleep in perimenopause and menopause
Stress, natural hormone fluctuations and blood sugar all play a role in how we sleep and our sleep cycles. And just like everything else in the wild world of women all of those things are magnified during menopause.
- Ericka Thomas
Transcript
If there’s one thing that every woman I know complains about, it's sleep deprivation. There’s a reason they use it for torture, oops I mean enhanced interrigation. Sleep disturbance every once in a while, a night or 2 here and there, is not a problem. More than 3 nights a week might be. Now I thought it was just me but apparently waking between 2 and 4 AM every night like clock work is pretty common for women in perimenopause and menopause. So today we’re going to take a look at why that happens and what you do about it.
Sleep is affected by almost everything you do from the moment you wake up in the morning. Today we’re going to focus on 3 specific pieces to the sleep puzzle and what you can do to naturally influence those things.
Specifically we want to look at 3 sleep levers. Stress, hormones and blood sugar.
Sleep is controlled by your circadian rhythms. Those are your internal clocks. Pretty much every system in your body has its own clock. And those are typically set by the amount of light we get or don’t get at particular times in the day.
It’s those clocks that trigger the release of certain hormones at certain times. For example you get a boost of cortisol in the morning. Sunlight then turns down melatonin so you can wake up.
Generally that’s how that works. When it’s time to sleep, what’s supposed to happen is the sun goes down. Melatonin turns up, insulin and cortisol drop and you fall into the blissful sleep of the innocent all through the night.
Except for perimenopausal and menopausal women who ping awake somewhere between 2-4 am. Like clockwork. And not just the normal wake up and roll over or grab a blanket. No, I'm talking wide awake with the weight of the world racing through your head.
Not cool.
According to my sources which you can find links to in the show notes.(sleepfoundation.org and Roots to branches whole health clinic), stress, natural hormone fluctuations and blood sugar all play a role in how we sleep and our sleep cycles. And just like everything else in the wild world of women all of those things are magnified during menopause.
Let’s start with the hormone piece. During perimenopause and into menopause all your sex hormones fluctuate. Most of us only think about estrogen but progesterone is a major player in sleep quality. Lower levels of progesterone affect levels of GABA.Gamma-aminobutyric acid GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain GABA is a relaxation neurotransmitter and it helps with sleep and reduces anxiety and tension in the body. The higher the GABA the more relaxed you can be. More specifically it helps you stay asleep. But GABA needs progesterone at a certain level. So when it’s not there, GABA isn’t supported and it’s harder to get into the slow wave and REM sleep cycles that we need.
Hormone fluctuations are natural and we can support them naturally when we understand some of the mechanisms and connections. One way is through this GABA connection. Supporting higher GABA levels through foods that contain its building blocks like (green, black, and oolong), berries, tomatoes, potatoes, noni fruit, lentils, wild-caught fish, and grass-fed beef. And foods rich in B6 like salmon, lean chicken, tofu, potatoes, bananas, avocados, spinach, garlic, broccoli and Brussels sprouts. Gut health is particularly important for GABA. Your gut’s beneficial microflora can synthesize GABA, and experts believe that GABA may then travel to the brain via the gut-brain axis,(that’s the vagus nerve) according to research. Some foods that do that are fermented foods that are rich in beneficial bacteria such as kimchi, sauerkraut, unsweetened kefir, and coconut water kefir. And along those lines probiotics are also beneficial.
And speaking of supplements l-theanine, magnesium, taurine, are all associated with greater levels of this calming neurotransmitter.
Meditation and yoga are both science backed GABA boosters. Remarkably, one study showed a 27% increase in GABA levels in yoga participants after a 60-minute session versus a comparison group that read for an hour. Another study compared yoga participants to a group of walkers, with both groups either practicing yoga or walking 60 minutes a few times a week over 12 weeks. The yoga participants showed increased GABA levels and greater improvements in mood and anxiety than the walkers!
What else besides progesterone lowers GABA. Smoking, alcohol and it pains me to say it, caffeine. But I practice yoga so maybe that balances my love of coffee. Then of course high levels of stress will kill GABA levels.
Stress is on our list of culprits for sleep disruptors.
Normally, at night time, melatonin levels will naturally increase, and cortisol (our stress hormone), will naturally be lower (than in the mornings). If you are under acute stress, or you have been under chronic stress, you may notice that you tend to wake up between 2-4 am and have difficulty falling back asleep. Sometimes, this can also be experienced as waking up earlier than you would naturally want to, like 4 or 5 am. This happens because cortisol has a natural rhythm in the body. A pattern of highs and lows that is influenced by your behavior patterns and changes in your hormone balance. Higher cortisol at certain times of the night can decrease deep slow wave sleep, and shorten sleeping time.
We need cortisol. It plays a role in controlling blood sugar levels, regulating the body’s sleep-wake cycle, managing how the body utilizes carbohydrates, fats, and proteins , reducing inflammation, and controlling blood pressure. We don’t want to get rid of it. We just want it to turn down at night.
Sadly, one of the best ways to lower cortisol levels naturally is by lowering stress and getting a good night sleep. Which is exactly what you can’t do if your cortisol levels are out of wack from chronic stress. But some very effective ways to calm the nervous system and downregulate the nervous system will lower cortisol. Some of those include, guided meditation + progressive relaxation. This is one of my personal favorites. And of course eating a balanced diet full of all the stuff I listed above including Omega 3 fatty acids.
Exercise can help regulate cortisol but because during exercise cortisol is naturally higher you want to keep it to the early part of the day. And simple things like connecting with friends, and having fun will also lower cortisol.
The 3rd and final piece to our sleeping puzzle is blood sugar
Everytime you eat, blood sugar rises. Then insulin comes online to remove that blood sugar from the blood and store it for later in the liver and fat cells. Cortisol also rises to help with that as well. If you eat or drink anything too close to bedtime (particularly high carb/high sugar) you might experience restless sleep, very light sleep or wake up a couple hours after falling asleep. This is why wine and other alcohol isn’t recommended before bed. The alcohol might help you get to sleep but the sugar response is most likely going to wake you up later.
High insulin levels also block melatonin production. Melatonin is your sleepy hormone.
Generally, it’s better for sleep cycles to give yourself 3-4 hours between your last meal of the day and bedtime.
Remember, I mentioned earlier that all the systems of your body have their own circadian rhythms. That is true of your digestive system and gut microbiome as well as your brain and neurologic systems. If your gut has to spend all night digesting your last meal it has less time to devote to orchestrating a sense of wellbeing and contentment. If the brain and body is overwhelmed with insulin and can’t reach slow wave and REM sleep it can’t do the nightly clean up and memory backups that happen at those times.
Controlling when your last meal of the day is and what is in it, is one of the simplest changes that you can make to get a better night's sleep.
I’m working on a new online course in the background that connects the dots for women of wisdom like you and me. It will include natural ways to balance hormones, ease anxiety and depression, demystify the pelvic floor, and re-sanctify sensuality. You can join the wait list for Metamorphosis: A menopause makeover by going to savagegracecoaching.com/services and click the join the waitlist button. This doesn’t obligate you in any way, it just gives you a front row seat when the doors open.
Thanks for listening! I’ll see you next time on The Work IN.
Hey there!
I’m your host Ericka Thomas. I'm a resilience coach and fit-preneur offering an authentic, actionable realistic approach to personal and professional balance for coaches in any format.
Savage Grace Coaching is all about bringing resilience and burnout recovery. Especially for overwhelmed entrepreneurs, creators and coaches in the fitness industry.
Schedule a free consultation call to see if my brand of actionable accountability is right for you and your business.