If You Suffer with Mid Life Insomnia, Hormone Imbalance May Be The Problem
Tossing and turning, can’t get comfortable and you just can’t fall asleep. If this sounds familiar and you are struggling with mid life insomnia the chances are your hormones are out of balance.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Though several factors can lead to insomnia, for women, one of the biggest causes is a hormonal imbalance. It’s a vicious cycle. When hormonal imbalance causes a lack of sleep, it can make you stressed. This in turn exacerbates your hormones issues even more. So, if you suspect this may be the case it’s important to have your hormones checked. It could be the solution to restoring your sleep.
Hormones That Contribute to Imbalance and Insomnia Mid Life
There are many different hormones that can get out of balance and can trigger insomnia. One of these is your estrogen. When estrogen gets too low, it can disrupt your normal sleep cycle.
Low estrogen levels can contribute to alertness and contribute to trouble shutting your thoughts of.
Menopause
Not only that, but if you’re a woman who’s in perimenopause or menopause, out of balance estrogen can cause things like night sweats or hot flashes. These in themselves can disrupt your sleep.
Getting your estrogen levels fixed will take care of the insomnia.
Progesterone
In addition to low estrogen, a woman can have problems with her progesterone balance. It’s this hormone that soothes emotions and triggers sleep.
When it’s low, you can feel heightened emotions during the time that you would normally be ready to fall asleep. Low estrogen can make you feel mentally and emotionally wired.
Cortisol
Your cortisol levels could also be the cause of your insomnia. When it’s too high, it drops your estrogen levels to the point where they’re out of balance. But that’s just one problem with unbalanced cortisol.
When it’s not right, it keeps your body, even as it’s trying to sleep, in a state of preparedness. So you end up feeling on edge and too alert to sleep. Taking care of the stress in your life is just one way to handle high cortisol levels.
To keep this hormone where it should be, you need to do things before bed that lower your stress. On the flip side of high cortisol is low cortisol. When this is lower than it should be, it’s known to cause insomnia.
Thyroid
Other hormonal imbalances that can cause insomnia have to do with your thyroid. If your thyroid produces too much of certain hormones, it can cause problems with your serotonin – and you need serotonin to help you sleep.
Too much thyroid hormone makes you feel wired, like you can’t rest. It also affects your alertness. If your thyroid is producing too little of a hormone, it affects your moods as well as your ability to sleep.
If you have a hormonal imbalance with your testosterone, this can cause insomnia and so can your DHEA. Low levels of this can impact your sleep just as much as low levels of the sleep hormone, melatonin.
Help for Insomnia Mid Life
We know that sleep is crucial for our well being. So if you are having problems getting to sleep its important to see your Doctor to get your hormones checked for any imbalance. It’s a simple blood test that will put your mind to rest.
Once you have the answers you can then take steps to address insomnia properly.
There are a few natural ways to get better sleep. And we know sleep will help to restore your hormonal levels too.
5 Things to Help Mid-Life Insomnia
Self Hypnosis for Sleep
When your head is busy and full of chatter meditation alone may not get your mind quiet enough. Instead try self hypnosis for sleep. By listening for a few minute before bed you can listen to gentle sounds and positive words will stop the mind noise while allowing you to fall to sleep peacefully. >> Click to learn more about sleep hypnosis <<
Unplug from Technology
Turn off your cell phone and computers a least 3 hours before bed time. Taking a break from social media, work and other stuff which is typically less than positive will give you a break from the daily stressors.
Journal
Take 5-10 minutes each night to write in your journal. Whether its notes of the day or better still a gratitude journal – start by writing down a few things that you are grateful for. This is a calming ritual that takes little thoughts and at the same time give you a boost of the feel good hormones.
Humor
If you enjoy watching tv, then find something that is humorous. Laughter really is the best medicine. It created endorphins – these are feel good hormones that can certainly help with your mid life insomnia.
Sleep Lamp
If you are tired in the morning that least longer than your morning coffee then try a sleep lamp. A sleep light also known as a light box will help give the same effects as the sunshine. This can help trick your body into thinking its sunlight helping to get your circadian rhythm back in balance.
Here’s to moving beyond insomnia mid life. xo