You toss and you turn, but you can’t fall asleep. You feel jittery, and as soon as one muscle relaxes, another one tenses. You’ve tried counting sheep and meditating, but you just can’t catch those Z’s. When you do sleep, you often wake up in the middle of the night for an indiscernible reason.
If this is you, you may be experiencing irregularly high cortisol levels. Cortisol, known as the “stress hormone”, is integral to regulating our sleep patterns, which, among other things, can affect our body’s metabolic and digestive activities.
What is Cortisol and How Does it Relate to Sleep?
Cortisol is a hormone released from the adrenal glands resting above your kidney in response to stress. A member of the glucocorticoid family, this hormone plays an integral role in regulating several metabolic processes, including digestion, pulmonary activity, cognitive processes, and sleep.
While colloquially called “the stress hormone”, high levels of cortisol do not immediately hint at a problem. In fact, under normal physiological conditions, cortisol levels rise in the morning. This cortisol increase in the bloodstream stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for fight or flight reactions. This system raises your blood pressure and increases your heart rate so that you can wake up. Roughly 30 minutes after waking up, your cortisol levels begin to decrease. The problem, however, is when they don’t.
Consistent exposure to stress raises the total cortisol levels in your body, leading to sleep dysregulation. This means that when your cortisol levels are meant to be low, such as when your body requires sleep, they will not sink below the threshold that activates the fight or flight response. Cortisol levels elevate over an extended period, making it difficult to sleep.
The Science of Cortisol and Sleep
Humans have a biological clock, called the circadian rhythm, that regulates periods of wakefulness and sleep. In this cycle, cortisol must be at its lowest point when we want to fall asleep and slowly rise to high levels as we approach the normal time to wake up. Cortisol is a stimulant hormone, meaning that it excites, or activates, many biological systems in the body—therefore in high concentrations, serum cortisol raises one’s heart rate, diverts blood flow from the stomach to the heart to reduce digestive activities, and controls body temperature (amongst many other metabolic functions) to make sure you wake up.
When cortisol is in high concentrations when it shouldn’t be, such as right before bedtime, it maintains the same stimulation of the biological systems, making it hard to fall asleep. This can be caused by long-term exposure to stress, which excites the nervous system into a constant state of hypervigilance against threats (such as in the fight or flight reaction) and reduces the chance of getting a good night’s sleep.
Is Cortisol Related to Stress?
Cortisol is related to stress because the secretion of the hormone is caused by stress. This interlocks cortisol and sleep as consistently high levels of cortisol do not maintain the fluctuating physiological relationship that occurs in a physiologically healthy individual. Someone with high levels all the time is comparable to someone engaged in an overly intense exercise regime; while there is an initial increase in energy and stimulation at the beginning of the routine, as time goes on, the constant excitatory stimulation of the nervous system leads to excess fatigue and dysregulation. With cortisol, the constant excitatory stimulation of the nervous system, combined with the lack of meeting cortisol level thresholds at the right times of day, leads to sleep issues.
Causes of Increased Cortisol and Their Effects on Sleep
The main causes of increases in cortisol come as a reaction to a prolonged period of stress. However, dysfunction of the hypothalamus and pituitary glands in the brain can also result in elevated levels of cortisol through hormonal dysregulation. It is important to maintain healthy exposure to stress and routine, because increased cortisol levels, regardless of the cause, can lead to sleep dysregulation and other metabolic issues.
How to Manage Cortisol Levels for Better Sleep:
Maintain a Routine
Establishing a daily schedule and making sure to follow it assists with reinforcing one’s circadian rhythm. Setting alarms to wake up at the same time each morning and going to sleep at the same time every night helps your body regulate cortisol levels, promoting better sleep.
Exercise
Studies show that physical activity can significantly reduce overall cortisol levels. Incorporating more exercise into your daily routine gives your body an outlet to burn off excess stress and better regulate the fluctuations in your cortisol levels throughout the day. For best results, maintain exercise routines over time, and avoid exercising close to bedtime to reduce excitement in your system when it is meant to relax.
Eat Right
Diet and eating to fuel your body can aid in balancing the complex metabolic processes occurring throughout the day. Nutritious food low in fiber and heavy fats reduce the strain of digestion as your body prepares for bed and try to finish eating at least two hours before bed. Avoid caffeine in the afternoons and evenings and avoid overly-processed junk foods that may impact both your digestion and thus your sleep.
Take Breaks
Incorporating short, mindful breaks throughout your day helps combat stress, a major trigger of elevated cortisol levels. Practices like deep breathing, meditation, or simply stepping away from a demanding task can provide mental clarity and keep cortisol in check.
Take Exhale
Evinature produces a supplement called Exhale specifically designed to promote a good night’s sleep. Combining ashwagandha, chamomile, and willow bark, these anti-inflammatory ingredients assist the body in adapting to stress and promoting rest.
Summer Pitocchelli-Schwartzman
