Have you ever been so tired all day but when you get in bed at night you can’t fall asleep?
I know how important sleep is and it’s frustrating when it’s hard for you to get enough! If you can relate,, I’d love to help you understand what are the two imbalance hormones and give you some tips on how to fix these.
Two main hormone imbalances of cortisol and melatonin play a big role in this.
Cortisol is a get-up-and-go hormone, it should be highest in the morning and slowly gradually fall throughout the day. Melatonin is our restful peaceful good night’s sleep hormone and it rises at night.
These two hormones are sort of antagonistic, when one is high the other one is low.
So you might be wondering if melatonin helps you go to sleep at night and what makes it low? The main thing that really impacts your melatonin is your cortisol; high cortisol inhibits the production of melatonin.
Cortisol is also known as the stress hormone and it’s more popular now which is great!
It kinda gets a bad rap most of the time. It’s not that we should have no cortisol, is that it should be balanced and it should be at the right levels for the right time of day; higher in the morning and lower at night.
Stress on our body can cause it to be higher than it should, especially prolonged stress. When I say stress, you might be thinking of emotional stress or thinking of a specific situation but there are many types of stress that cause stress on our body. The definition of stress is our body’s response to changes or demands.
Here are a few things that cause stress and increase cortisol in our body: under-eating, toxins, fasted cardio, lack of movement, lack of sleep.
Under-eating can cause an increase in cortisol. Not getting enough nutrients due to under-eating may cause stress on your body. When we clean our home with toxins, eat processed foods or use beauty products that are full of chemicals, all those things can cause undue stress on our bodies.
Fasted cardio or over-exercising can cause stress unnecessary on our body. Exercise in general is a stress, but it’s not until we take it to the extreme on an already stressed out body that it really backfires.
Lack of movement can cause stress on your body because it was made to move!
Our body needs sleep for restoration and it’s often not prioritized in our body world.
With all of this, it’s easy to see why we have too much cortisol all day. As a result, your system gradually burns out.
However, just thinking about having too much cortisol inhibits melatonin production. This is much more than just stress; your body is being taxed from a multitude of sources, and this can last for days, weeks, months, or even years, causing you to feel wired yet tired almost every day, a cycle we desperately want to break.
The best way to break free from the cycle is to restore your cortisol balance, and melatonin will usually follow.
Three ways to restore your cortisol balance are decreasing your toxic load, getting sunlight and getting off your screens at night.
Working to decrease toxic load can be a chore, as there are a lot of things that we put in on and around us. Some we can control, some we can’t. But what about the toxins that we are inundated with every single day?
One of the easiest things you can do is look at the products you are using around your home and try to ditch and switch those.
Whether it’s cleaning or personal care, there are lots of different areas that we can look at. We all want our home to smell good but what are those chemicals doing as far as our toxic load, that’s something that I really want to encourage you to look at.
Geting proper sunlight exposure is important to get your circadian rhythm back in check.
Your cortisol needs to be high in the morning and your melatonin to be high at night. That starts in the morning with direct sunlight on your skin and being outside helps reset that system. It can actually trigger your body to make more melatonin by getting sunlight first thing in the morning. Once we can get that back in check that’s going help us sleep better at night.
Limiting screen time at night is hard, but important.
Watching tv at night before going to bed can mess up your sleep cycle. You may want to try reading a book or being off the device for at least 30 minutes before you go to sleep would be a great step in the right direction. However, if you’re going to watch a tv show, you might be at least wearing blue-light-blocking glasses at night to minimize the effect that this has on your circadian rhythm.
I address this issue and explain a few of the root issues that may be contributing to it in the video below!
Do you struggle to have the energy you need to do all God has called you to each day? Check out the free PDF resource I put together with 3 steps to support daily detox for better energy that actually gets to the root of the issue when it comes to fatigue!