Is lack of sleep sabotaging your health? Read on for our top sleep tips.
- Helen Moynihan
- Oct 30, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
Yes - poor sleep disrupts the hormones that regulate hunger, blood sugar, and stress, making it harder to manage weight, energy, and mood, especially through perimenopause and menopause. The good news is that most sleep problems respond well to targeted changes in diet and routine.
Sleep and weight
Sleep and weight are intimately related. If you're not getting enough sleep on a regular basis, you're setting yourself up to be hungrier, eat more, weigh more, and have a harder time losing weight. It's not all in your head.
If you're consistently surviving on too little sleep (that's less than seven and a half hours of good sleep per night), you won't be functioning at your best, focusing properly, or thinking creatively. Sleep deprivation causes an imbalance in the hormones that directly affect your feelings of hunger. Ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and leptin (the satiety hormone that tells you when you've had enough) are majorly disrupted when you're not sleeping enough. So after a night of lousy sleep, if you feel like you need to eat a banquet, it's not all in your head, but rather in your hormones, and the food you crave is likely to be high-carb and starchy rather than the healthy choices you'd
otherwise make.
How does stress affect sleep?
Lack of sleep also disrupts stress hormones, and stress in turn disrupts sleep, creating a vicious circle. Cortisol, one of the main stress hormones, should follow a specific daily pattern: low first thing, rising to a peak in the morning to get you out of bed, then gradually tailing off toward evening. Prolonged stress can throw this rhythm off, leaving cortisol elevated at night. Typically this leaves you feeling "tired but wired": exhausted, but your head is buzzing when you hit the pillow.
The stress placed on the body by lack of sleep also disrupts insulin sensitivity, contributing to weight gain, which in turn can worsen hormonal symptoms like hot flushes and night sweats.
Why does perimenopause make sleep worse?
During perimenopause, night sweats caused by falling oestrogen are enough to disrupt anyone's rest. Oestrogen also helps your body make better use of serotonin, the precursor to melatonin, your natural sleep hormone. As oestrogen falls, progesterone often falls even more sharply, and progesterone helps you fall asleep faster and stay asleep with fewer disruptions.
How does blood sugar affect sleep?
The more starchy carbohydrates you eat, the more glucose enters your blood, and the more insulin your body needs to restore balance. A diet high in starchy carbs and sugar leads to more pronounced blood sugar swings overnight, which can disturb sleep. A sugar "crash" during the night triggers a release of cortisol to wake you at the wrong time, shifting you out of deep sleep into lighter, more disrupted sleep. Eating in a way that balances blood sugar through the day can significantly improve sleep quality.
Sleep tips for a good night's rest
Do:
Go to bed at the same time every day. Your body thrives on routine.
Keep your bedroom at a comfortable temperature, not too hot, not too cold.
Use your bed only for sleep and sex, so your brain learns to associate it purely with rest.
Keep the bedroom fully dark. An eye mask can help.
Spend time outdoors during the day to support your natural sleep-wake rhythm.
Take some gentle exercise regularly. Both stretching and aerobic exercise support restful sleep. A brisk walk covers both.
Relax for at least 5 minutes before bed: a warm bath, a massage, or meditation.
Consider a traditional alarm clock so your phone can stay out of the bedroom.
Don't:
Do stimulating activities close to bedtime: competitive games, gripping films, difficult conversations, or scrolling on your phone.
Eat a heavy meal within four hours of going to bed.
Drink caffeine in the afternoon, including coffee and tea.
Rely on alcohol to help you sleep. It tends to make sleep more disrupted, not less.
Go to bed too hungry.
Take long daytime naps.
Go to bed frustrated about not sleeping. A calmer mindset genuinely helps.
It starts with one change
You've likely read some version of these tips before. Just knowing the information isn't enough on its own; what makes the difference is action. If lack of sleep is at the root of skipping meal planning, reaching for sugary snacks, or feeling like a shadow of yourself, put better sleep at the top of your list this week and see what shifts.
What the guidance says
Sleep is closely linked to hormonal and metabolic health, and NICE guidance on menopause recognises sleep disturbance as a common symptom worth addressing as part of a holistic approach alongside any medical treatment.
Sleep is one area we focus on throughout our 12 week programmes, and almost everyone reports better sleep within just a few weeks. If fatigue, blood sugar swings, or hormonal changes are behind your sleep struggles, book your free 30-minute Health & Energy Review to find out where to start..
Comments