The Impact of Stress on Sleep: Why Cortisol Ruins Your Rest and How to get those much needed zzz's

This is episode 6 in our 6 part series on the stress hormone Cortisol and how it impacts different areas of our physical wellbeing. In today's episode, we are taking a look at the relationship between Cortisol and our sleeping behaviours. 

Take a look at our other episodes in this series:

Here are the earlier episodes from our Unveiling Cortisol series:

Episode 1: Unveiling Cortisol: Exploring its Impact on the Immune System

Episode 2: Shifting the Scale: How Stress Hormones Influence Your Waistline

Episode 3: Beyond the Beat: How Cortisol Interacts with Your Cardiovascular System. 

Episode 4: Mind Matters: How Cortisol Can Hurt Cognitive Function like Memory and Concentration. 

Episode 5: Stress and Digestion: How Cortisol Disrupts Your Gut and What You Can Do About It

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Transcript

The Impact of Cortisol on Sleep

Speaker 1 0:00

You're tuning in to Reverse, recent, restore your go-to source for all things related to optimizing your physical, mental and emotional health. Today, we're shining a spotlight on cortisol, the unsung hero, or villain, of our body's stress response system. So sit back, relax and get ready to explore how understanding this essential hormone can empower you to take charge of your health and well-being like never before. Change comes from within. Welcome to Reverse, reset, restore. My name is Sally and this podcast is all about reconnecting to who you are and becoming the person you were always meant to be. We talk about some hard confronting stuff sometimes in these episodes, but I can tell you from experience that the pathway to healing, no matter how challenging and exhausting and overwhelming that it can be, it is always a worthy endeavor. Finding your way back to self-love and acceptance and living a more conscious life will always elevate you and those around you will always elevate you and those around you. This is episode 6 in our special 6-part series on cortisol and its impact in various areas of our body During 2024, on the first Tuesday of the month, I dropped an episode that focused on the stress hormone. In those previous episodes, we've looked at cortisol in our immune system, cortisol in our weight, cortisol in our immune system, cortisol in our weight, cortisol in our cardiovascular system, cortisol in our cognition, and our last episode was where we looked at our digestive system. If any of those body parts hold particular interest for you, be sure to check them out. I've linked the previous episodes in the show notes for you. Today is finally, after an accidentally long hiatus, which you can check out why in the episode hello again, we have arrived at episode six in the series, which makes it our final topic and where we are focusing on how the stress hormone interacts with our sleep. If you've been listening to all of the episodes in the series, you will have discovered that cortisol exerts a profound influence on virtually every aspect of our health, and our sleeping habits are no exception.

Speaker 1 2:38

Sleep is one of those essential commodities that we often take for granted. I know I underestimated its value and have somehow managed to live for years shortchanging my rest more nights than I can count. We all know the expression I'll sleep when I'm dead, and I totally relate. Sleep seemed like such a poor use of my time. Or, as Edgar Allan Poe so dramatically and accurately put it sleep, those little slices of death. How I loathe them, and I did tend to loathe sleep. It's easy for us to get into the cycle of downplaying its vitalness to all aspects of our lives. After all, modern life has many demands and our sleep often takes a back seat to work, social obligations, personal responsibilities and even doom scrolling. But here's the thing Sleep is not just downtime thing. Sleep is not just downtime, it's essential. As the Dalai Lama wisely put it, sleep is the best meditation.

Speaker 1 3:51

Sleep is a cornerstone of our well-being, affecting everything from cognitive function to overall health. Unfortunately, stress can severely disrupt our ability to get quality sleep, and one of the key players in this disruption is our old friend cortisol. So let's recap what cortisol is. Cortisol is a hormone produced by the adrenal glands in response to stress. It plays a crucial role in the body's fight or flight response, preparing us to handle stressful situations. While this response is essential in emergencies, chronic stress can lead to consistently elevated cortisol levels, which can wreak havoc on our health, particularly our sleep. As E Joseph Kosman said, the best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep. So let's talk about some of the ways in which cortisol impacts our sleep.

Speaker 1 4:51

Firstly, let's look at disrupted sleep patterns. Elevated cortisol levels can interfere with the normal sleep-wake cycle, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night. Let's talk about a few reasons why this happens, making it difficult to fall asleep and stay asleep through the night. Let's talk about a few reasons why this happens. Number one is that our bodies are designed to have lower cortisol levels at night, which makes sense as this is the time for the body and the mind to repair and relax. But chronic stress can override this mechanism, leading to heightened alertness. Number two is lifestyle choices. For example, shift workers often experience disrupted cortisol patterns, which can contribute to chronic sleep issues. As a former shift worker for the ambulance service and even as a nanny, I can definitely see how my sleep patterns and level of stress from my jobs contributed to my sleep struggles. And a third reason is if you're a parent or a caregiver.

Speaker 1 5:51

Research indicates that elevated cortisol levels, often resulting from parental stress, can significantly disrupt sleep patterns. A study published in the Journey of Pediatric Psychology found that parents of children with developmental disabilities experience tightened stress, which was associated with poor sleep quality. There's also research that has shown that over-controlling parental behaviours can also influence children's stress levels, as reflected in their cortisol secretion patterns and their sleep quality, cortisol secretion patterns and their sleep quality. This suggests that there's a bi-directional relationship where parental stress affects children's sleep and vice versa. Staying on the topic of parents and children, a study examining the effects of parenting interventions on cortisol levels found significant impacts on both the child and the caregiver's cortisol levels, indicating that addressing parental stress can positively influence sleep quality for both the parents or the caregiver and the children. I think what these findings underscore is that it's so important to manage your parental stress to promote better sleep health within families. So if you're a parent with poor sleeping habits, you might find that your sleeping habits are influencing the sleep and health of your children, and I know a lot of parents prioritize their kids to their own detriment.

Speaker 1 7:16

But studies like these highlight the importance, I think, of practicing self-care first, because that self-care first, because that self-care first have benefits that flow onto the family unit. Think of what they tell you in the safety procedures on a plane Put on your own mask first before helping others. You are not being selfish when practicing appropriate self-care. You are ensuring that you can be at your best, which can then help others be at their best too. Okay, I will get off my little soapbox preachy moment now, but before we move on, I just want to add this little observation. Have you ever noticed that after a long productive day you tend to sleep better? That's because a balanced day contributes to a balanced night. Leonardo da Vinci put it as a well-spent day brings happy sleep. Have you noticed this phenomenon for yourself? If so, please feel free to let me know in the comment section if the platform that you're listening to this podcast on allows that's something like Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Podbean, or head over to the Reverse Reset, restore threads, facebook, instagram and let me know there.

Speaker 1 8:39

A secondary way that cortisol can really wreak havoc with your sleeping patterns is that it reduces your REM sleep, which is the rapid eye movement. Rapid eye movement sleep is crucial for cognitive functions such as memory, consolidation and learning. High cortisol levels can reduce your REM sleep, impairing these processes. Rem sleep is also essential for emotional processing. A lack of REM sleep can make emotional regulation more challenging. I know when I am just super tired, I just don't have the emotional bandwidth to handle things that I might not normally be so emotionally rocked by. We've all been there right, so exhausted that something that might earth us a little in a quote unquote, normal day suddenly feels like it's the biggest problem we have ever faced. We may be more susceptible to anger or tears or confusion, and end up taking those emotions out on others or ourselves in harmful ways. So REM sleep is essential to our emotional well-being as well. What is interesting to note here as well is that during REM sleep the brain is almost as active as when it's awake, which is highlighting its importance for our mental health.

Speaker 1 10:00

Increased arousal is another issue that can arise when cortisol is coursing through your body. Cortisol keeps the body in a state of alertness, making it harder to relax and unwind before bedtime. As we've talked about previously, cortisol prepares the body for a fight or flight response, which is obviously counterproductive to the relaxation needed for sleep. Here is my case in point. I'm currently doing some study and preparing for a business startup, which is fun and engaging for me. But if I keep working on my ideas or my studies, after a certain time at night it's like I cannot switch my brain off, and that makes it almost impossible for me to go to bed at a reasonable hour and get to sleep. My brain is so activated and on that it's ready to go, which means that my body is also in the state of readiness and hyper arousal and I can't just fall into bed and get quality sleep, which leads into the next problem Insomnia. So prolonged stress and high cortisol levels are linked to insomnia, which is where individuals struggle to fall asleep or experience frequent awakenings during the night, and this also ties to the idea of sleep fragmentation, which is when you're frequently waking up throughout the night, which is what they call fragmented sleep. This prevents the body from achieving the restorative benefits of uninterrupted sleep.

Speaker 1 11:40

Another issue that comes along with high cortisol levels is an impaired immune function. So research indicates that poor sleep quality due to elevated cortisol can weaken your immune system, and we've talked about this with the immune system and the cortisol episode. This makes individuals more susceptible to illness or, in my case, as an example, continues to escalate my chronic pain conditions. I know when I have increased inflammation and more pain that feels unmanageable. I'm also likely to be in a high cortisol overloaded state. It feels like what came first the, the chicken or the egg and you definitely feel like you're living on some sort of sick cycle carousel.

Speaker 1 12:29

High cortisol can contribute to the development of mood disorders such as anxiety and depression. The poor sleep quality can exacerbate the feelings of stress, creating this feedback loop Because I personally have chronic pain and other health conditions that are not so easily managed. When I'm in pain and I'm not sleeping or being able to move around so much, it can definitely impact my mental well-being and having been depressed before it makes me at risk of having that depression or anxious thoughts come back. I'm still learning to recognize and implement strategies when this perfect storm occurs, and sometimes I'm successful and other times I am not. But with each success I'm reducing the impact and the risk of it occurring again, or at least being more mindful and becoming much more aware and quicker to latch on to the pattern that I'm in and be able to work towards it. Are any of these setting off familiar alarm bells for your current sleeping patterns? Do you have other sleep disturbances that interfere with your ability to get quality sleep? Does any of this make sense in relation to, maybe, the chronic stress load that you are under that you perhaps aren't even aware that you've been living with?

Improving Sleep Quality With Healthy Habits

Speaker 1 13:55

I think more and more studies are highlighting the connection between disrupted sleep, elevated cortisol and mood disorders, and it's emphasizing the need for stress management to improve our mental health and our physical well-being, and a lot of this ties in with our ability to get that restorative sleep, which is what sleep is really all about. Now you may be thinking Sally, this is all very well and good and I already know my sleep and cortisol levels are garbage, but what can I do to fix it? Great question, thanks for asking. Here are 10 tried and true tips to reduce cortisol levels and improve sleep. I'm providing 10 here, but don't freak out. I'm not suggesting you try to implement them all, especially not all at once, but I would encourage you to pick one, maybe two, and start to make them a habit. Just choose which one feels the most doable for you. Remember, this is not about adding more pressure to your already pressurized life, because all that's going to do is increase your cortisol levels, and that's no bueno. No, the idea here is to be loving and kind and thoughtful towards yourself, and so whatever habit you can take from one of these 10 tips will help you practice some self-love, which will, in turn, also help with reducing your cortisol levels, which will influence all the other areas of your life that might be currently overwhelmed by your own hormones trying to protect you in its own funky, prehistoric way.

Speaker 1 15:41

Number one regular exercise. Engaging in regular physical activity helps reduce cortisol levels and promotes better sleep quality. The recommendation is to aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise most days of the week. Now, at the moment, my physical health makes 30 consecutive minutes pretty much impossible, so I've been breaking that down. I always try to aim for at least an hour a day overall, but some days that's just not possible, and that's okay. The point is to do what you can when you can with the body you have right now. So start with one minute, if that is the best you can do. One minute every hour for as many hours as you can do. The more you move your body with love and understanding rather than trying to punish it, the easier this will become and the more you will be able to do. I also suggest that you do exercise that you enjoy.

Speaker 1 16:49

A lot of people get into this thing of they've got to go to the gym, of they've got to start running, of they've got to do these things. There's no got to. It's about actually giving yourself some permission to love yourself through the way that you're going to move your body. For me. I absolutely adore dancing. I've just slowly started to get back into my body groove dancing, and I can't do a full dance session. It's just. Even a 15 minute thing is too much for me at the moment, or some days I can, but with my chronic health conditions it's not always possible and I used to get so furious and angry about it. But right now I've just had to remind myself that we're not punishing my body anymore. It hasn't worked. It's just created this horrible, toxic, unhealthy, brutal, frankly relationship between my mind and my body and how I feel about myself, understanding that you can use exercise as another way to self-love and to honor your body and to give your body the things that it needs, which is movement. We're meant to move. That's why we've got joints, that's why we've got these beautiful, amazing machines that we dwell in for our whole lives.

Speaker 1 18:05

What I'm trying to say here is find something that feels good for you and if you can literally only do a minute, do a minute, because maybe in a week or two you might be able to do two minutes and in a month three minutes or four minutes or five minutes. This is how it goes. You just build upon. It's like building a house, right, we've got to have a foundation. You don't just magically build a house all in one go. Generally, it takes time, it takes framework, it takes nails, it takes sheetrock, it all the things that come together to build a house into a home. That's what we're trying to do here and that's how you can use exercise as a way to reframe it from a form of punishment or a form of oh, I need to do this and recognize. Oh, actually, I've got a foundation here I'm just going to build. Maybe I'll just build the frame today of one room or one area, maybe I'll pour the concrete, whatever it's going to be. If that helps as a reference point for you or analogy, think of another analogy that works for you.

Speaker 1 19:09

The point is here is that give yourself some grace to understand that physical movement and exercise which, especially if you have got pain or you've got chronic health conditions or disease or illnesses or physical inabilities, or you're overweight or whatever it is, whatever the hang-up is for you between moving your body and the idea of exercise Reframe the thought of exercise as punishment and bring it into the light of. This is a way that I can love myself. This is a way that I can honor my beautiful, amazing body and allow it to give me as much ability and flexibility for the rest of my life. I don't want to be 80 years old and barely able to move. I feel bad now and it is one of the reasons why I've had a bit of mental health stuff going on too, because the chronic pain has made me feel like this is a really scary thing. If I can't get out of this sort of loop, I'm going to stop my ranting because I know I'm going on, but I just really want to encourage you that let's reframe this idea of must do some sort of form of exercise and seeing it as punishment or seeing it as a chore, as a practice in self-love and grace and giving your body the best chance to continue to function well for you well into the later years of your life.

Speaker 1 20:33

Tip number two healthy sleep environment. This is where you could look at creating a conducive sleep environment. A lot of the time. It's recommended that you keep your bedroom cool and dark and quiet, invest in a comfortable mattress, because we spend a lot of time in our bed, so our mattresses should be really supportive of our bodies, and also your pillows to support restful sleep. I use a lot of fans. We definitely need the air con on at the moment because it's summer here in Australia. I also have bedding that is a cooling fabric and it's actually designed to wick away any sweat and keep you cool. I listen to waves or rain to drift off to sleep to, which also helps as white noise to drown out outside noises that might interrupt my sleep.

Speaker 1 21:23

The third tip establish a sleep routine. Develop a consistent bedtime routine to signal to your body that it's time to wind down now. This could include activities like reading, taking a bath, practicing relaxation techniques. As I mentioned earlier, I have to stop working on my business ideas and studies by a certain time, otherwise my brain just cannot switch off On the days I don't stop at that time, I do have to look at other ways to help calm things down. So I practice mindfulness techniques before I hop into bed to try to broker a peace between my mind and my body long enough for me to go to sleep.

Speaker 1 22:06

Tip number four limit caffeine and alcohol. Now, both caffeine and alcohol can interfere with sleep quality and exacerbate cortisol levels. Limit consumption, especially in the hours leading up to bedtime. I know this is a rule I break sometimes, as I do occasionally have a glass of wine or a beer before bed, which will help me go to sleep. While it can be a practice that works, having a drink before sleep, it's not really an ideal situation and definitely a dangerous game for those who may struggle with addiction. My suggestion here is to limit this as an option or avoid using alcohol as a short-term fix, because it can potentially become a long-term problem. Tip number five practice stress management. So incorporate stress-reducing activities into your daily routine, such as yoga, meditation, deep breathing exercises or mindfulness practices Some less well-known techniques, but very interesting to try.

Speaker 1 23:11

Tip number six adaptation herbs. Herbs like ashwagandha, rhodola and holy basil have ectogenic properties that can help regulate cortisol levels and support the body's stress response, and you can get these in a pill form and just have them as part of a supplement. Magnesium supplementation is tip number seven. Magnesium is known to promote relaxation and improve sleep quality. Consider taking a magnesium supplement or consuming magnesium rich foods like leafy greens, nuts and seeds, so this is something that you can easily input into your day. I also have magnesium sprays that I try to use before bed. Magnesium is also really great for muscle pains and muscle aches and it can also actually help with blood sugar levels. So I tend to put it on my sore muscles, I rub it in. I also rub it into the soles of my feet when I hop into bed and I've found this seems to be helping with my sleep quality.

Speaker 1 24:14

Tip number eight aromatherapy. So there's certain essential oils, such as lavender and chamomile, that we know can have calming effects that help reduce stress and promote relaxation. Before bedtime you can use a diffuser or apply diluted oil to pulse points. You can have a spray that you can put on your pillow or wear an eye mask that has lavender and other calming sort of essential oils infused in it. There's lots of different things out there available for people if that's something that you find helpful. Obviously, if you have allergies to essential oils or have a sensitive nose that can't cope with strong smells too close to you, that might not be an option for you. But if you are someone who likes aromatherapy and does feel like when you use lavender or chamomile or other things that you find you relax a little bit, this could be helpful for you. You could also look at, obviously, using something as simple as a lavender scented candle or something like that if that would help bring that same sort of relaxation in.

Speaker 1 25:20

Number nine is limit screen time. Blue light emitted by screens disrupts the production of melatonin, which is the hormone that regulates our sleep-wake cycles, by limiting our exposure to screens, especially in the hour before our bedtime, and this is probably one of the biggest culprits for the majority of us, right, who doesn't live a big portion of their life via screens. It's probably another topic we could touch on for another episode, but where you can, the last hour before you're settling in for the night for bed, try to avoid being on your phone or watching TV, removing that last hour of your evening being a screen free time. So that could be a good time to implement some of the other practices suggested here. Having a really beautiful sort of luxurious before bedtime routine where you really look after your body and your skin and your hair and all of those sort of things could be something that you do instead of being on the phone or watching TV.

Speaker 1 26:24

And number 10, journal TV and number 10, journal. Now, as a writer, this is probably one of my favorite ideas, but I will admit that, since being with my partner, it's not a practice I use at night like I used to, because he's usually in bed before me and I don't want to bother him with a reading light and me scribbling away. And I tend to find that when I want to journal before bed, it's nice to be in bed to do rather than sitting in the lounge with all the lights on. But this is a very helpful technique. Writing down your thoughts, and especially your worries, before bedtime can help clear your mind and reduce your stress levels, making it easier to relax and fall asleep. Actually, I know I said 10 tips.

Speaker 1 27:09

I'm going to add another tip here, and this is my go-to practice for helping me get to sleep, and I've designed this myself. I call it my body brain chat, and when I hop into bed I start to talk to my body. I thank it for the day I talk to specific parts of my body and how I appreciate it and how, by the act of sleeping, it gets to take a break from me and rest and repair. And then I do the same thing for my brain and I thank it for all its amazing creativity and thinking and if I'm overthinking, I remind it that this is time for it to do what it needs to do to keep me and my body alive, but also to rest and recharge for and my body alive, but also to rest and recharge for the next day. And this is also the point where I usually say, if there are any thoughts that are trying to keep me worried and focused on them, that we can just pause that conversation and hold it in the morning. And I know this sounds a bit weird, but it works. Let me take you through an actual practice of my body-brain chat in a bonus episode so you can hear how this works and try it out for yourself. I'll link that bonus episode in the show notes. You'll also find a link to what was supposed to be a sleeping affirmations episode to complement this episode that I actually released back in November 2024. I'd love to hear your thoughts on both the affirmations and the body-brain chat technique, especially if you tried them out for yourself. Just remember this is not a one-and-done type of practice, or, to quote a famous Pantene commercial well, at least famous in New Zealand it won't happen overnight overnight, but it will happen.

Speaker 1 28:49

Prioritizing quality sleep is absolutely crucial for our overall health and well-being. Yet we know that stress and cortisol levels can significantly impair our ability to achieve restorative sleep. By understanding the impact of cortisol in sleep and implementing effective strategies to reduce stress, such as the regular exercise or stress management techniques and optimizing your sleep environment, you can improve your sleep quality and overall health. I encourage you to experiment with these tips and techniques, define what works best for you, and remember that consistent habits lead to lasting improvements in sleep and stress management, and actually in all areas of our life. So here's to getting those much needed zs and the consequences of so doing being a healthier, more balanced you.

Speaker 1 29:51

I'll leave you with a spinal thought from Thomas Decker. It is the same quote I used to end episode 17,. Counting sheep or losing sleep how negative self-image can ruin your night. I know we are going way back with that one, but it's a goodie, so check it out. Link in the comments. I think it's an important reminder how connected sleep and cortisol and our health are to each other, and everything we do or experience impacts all facets of our lives. He said sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.