Are you experiencing sleepless nights and low hormones? You may wonder if there’s a connection between the quality of sleep and the number of hormones circulating in your body. Your instincts are right because hormones affect bodily functions, from weight gain to sleep quality. In this article, we’ll explore how sleep impacts your hormones.
What are Hormones?
Hormones are small but mighty messengers in the body that play a vital role in bodily systems and processes. Hormones decrease due to illness, lifestyle, and aging. When we have the right amounts, our bodies function optimally at a high level, but when we don’t we experience extreme side effects. Hormones help regulate the following functions in the body.
- Temperature regulation
- Sleep-wake rhythm
- Heart rate
- Sexual function, drive, and fertilization
- Blood pressure
- Hunger and metabolism
-
Growth
Low hormones can have a significant impact on these crucial functions. In particular, low hormones impact the quality and length of sleep.
How Sleep Impacts Your Hormones
Hormones help regulate your sleep cycle or circadian rhythm. And in turn, sleep helps facilitate the release of certain hormones. However, when you have interrupted sleep, such as insomnia, certain hormones aren’t released, which can lead to many adverse effects. Some of the hormones sleep helps secrete the following:
- Estrogen and progesterone
- Melatonin
- Cortisol
- Insulin, leptin, and ghrelin (hunger hormones)
- Thyroid hormones
-
Growth hormones
The zing and yang nature of hormone release and sleep is profoundly important. Your body needs time to rest and release vital hormones.
Important Sleep Hormones
Hormones are chemicals that send messages to the body, but certain ones are crucial for sleep duration and quality.
Cortisol
Sleep helps regulate cortisol. Cortisol is a steroid hormone known as the stress hormone. Cortisol, produced in the adrenal glands, tells your body how to react to stress. So, in a way, it’s a protective hormone that safeguards your body from harm.
As you sleep, your body produces cortisol and, after waking, reaches a peak within 30 minutes. Cortisol also produces other hormones that regulate your metabolism and hunger, including thyroid hormone and estrogen. If you have a poor sleep, then less cortisol is released, which then causes a sluggish metabolism and weight gain.
Estrogen and Progesterone
Estrogen and progesterone are most commonly associated with women since their importance in reproduction, fertility, and bone health cannot be understated. Women with low estrogen are thrust into menopause and have many uncomfortable symptoms.
Less sleep interferes with cortisol release and causes problems with estrogen and progesterone production. Cortisol helps produce these female sex hormones. In addition, poor sleep can lead to irregular cycles and trouble conceiving and gaining weight.
Thyroid Hormones
Thyroid hormones regulate your metabolism. The thyroid gland is a bow-shaped gland on the front of the neck. Inside the brain is the pituitary gland that sends a signal to the thyroid gland to produce thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH).
TSH levels rise and fall depending on the signals coming from the pituitary gland. Typically levels remain optimal with an excellent metabolic rate. However, sleep deprivation disrupts the amount of TSH and can result in hypothyroidism.
Hunger Hormones
Leptin, ghrelin, and insulin are all sleep hormones. They send all kinds of signals connected to appetite to your body, including:
- Hunger
- Fullness
- Blood sugar regulation
-
Fat storage
Sleeping less can affect these hormones, leading to incorrect signals. For example, you may feel hungry even when you don’t require a food source. It may also encourage you to make poor dietary choices by reaching for a salty or sugary snack that may taste great but only add to your waistline.
Melatonin
Melatonin is a hormone nicknamed the sleep hormone. Its production comes from light or the lack of it. As the light disappears and darkness takes over, this change signals your pineal gland to produce melatonin. Melatonin helps your body to relax and slip into sleep.
As the night progresses, you continue to make melatonin, but the amount decreases as darkness disappears and a new day begins. Melatonin helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle and is vital for circadian rhythms. Therefore, if you sleep less, you produce less melatonin, or a lack of melatonin may interfere with going to and staying asleep.
Human Growth Hormone
Human Growth Hormone (HGH) is a critical hormone that helps with muscle development, metabolism, and immunity. Sleep helps produce this hormone, and without HGH, you can have a poor metabolic function, become susceptible to disease, and grow slower.
Less sleep = lower hormones
In a nutshell, less sleep means lower hormone levels. Or vice versa; low hormones can result in less sleep. The connection between sleep and hormone levels is deep. But there are ways to regulate hormone levels and get the needed sleep.
How to Regulate Hormones
Hormone regulation is essential for healthy sleep. You can boost hormone levels by sleeping more, eating a healthy diet, and making other lifestyle changes. But the best and easiest way is through hormone supplementation.
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy replaces the missing hormones with identical ones. Bioidentical means that the hormones mimic the same hormones produced in the body.
But not all hormone therapy is created equal. Big pharmaceutical companies make traditional forms of hormones in all states (tablets, injections, inserts) with harsh chemicals, fillers, and animal products. Estrogen, for example, is typically made with equine or horse urine.
When choosing a hormone supplier, choose one with the highest standards and commitment to high-quality ingredients. Effective hormone therapy means choosing a hormone supplement you can trust.
BIOLabs Pro offers a full range of hormone products, from estrogen to melatonin. The high-performance hormone creams come in maximum dosages and are extremely effective.
Get the Rest You Deserve
Living day in and day out with poor sleep directly affects the quality of your life. Sleep impacts your hormones, and this can cause you to sleep poorly. The answer is to boost your hormone levels naturally with hormone therapy. You may sleep like a baby, after all.
