The Importance Of Sleep Consistency In Midlife
Sleep issues aren’t exactly a new topic for most moms. For thousands of years, we’ve faced a variety of sleep issues, and many of them are not related to having a newborn!
Hormonal changes also play a huge role in sleep and can become particularly problematic during the perimenopause and menopause transition.
Left untreated, inconsistent sleep in mid- and later life can cause or exacerbate various health problems for every mama. If you’re in your middle years and sleep is problematic, you may need a helping hand.
Sleep and Your Health
I certainly know what I’m like after a bad night, and it’s not good. I’m sure you know the feeling.
Getting enough sleep is essential for maintaining good health. Sleep plays a vital role in the synchronization of our hormone synthesis and secretion, as these processes depend on our bodies’ circadian rhythm. This rhythm includes the physical, mental, and behavioral changes that follow a 24-hour cycle.
According to the National Sleep Foundation, most healthy adults aged between 18 and 64 should get between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, and older adults should get between seven and eight hours.
If you don't get the recommended amount of shut-eye, you increase your risk of developing dementia—and as if this wasn’t bad enough, dementia is only one potential health risk. Not getting enough sleep each night simply doesn’t give your body the downtime it needs to keep things running as they should.
DNA Repair and Detoxing
There’s some evidence that sleep’s essential role is to assist with maintaining our brain cells, particularly through repairing DNA and removing toxins. This is only done efficiently when brain cells are inactive.
During those ideal seven hours of sleep, the brain gradually relaxes and enters the REM (slow wave) sleep stage, usually referred to as “deep sleep.” This stage is well-known for two reasons, and neither of them is the 90s pop-rock band. REM sleep is when we dream and when our brains detox.
Aiming for sleep consistency during midlife is incredibly important for supporting our basic metabolic functions, and this goes beyond maintaining hormone cycles and our brains’ DNA repair and detoxification. It can also help us to maintain our appetite or feeding patterns and our body’s fat and glucose metabolism.
Sleep and Stress
If we don’t get enough sleep, our cortisol levels are likely to increase.
Cortisol is the “stress hormone,” and if its level increases, it sends the nervous system into panic mode or what’s commonly known as the “fight or flight” state.
I hate that groggy feeling after a night of almost zero sleep, so the last thing I want to feel on top of that is a racing pulse, dry mouth, and heightened senses, and I’m sure you feel the same way!
When our bodies get into this state, our brains focus almost all our energy on the functions we most need when facing danger.
Adrenalin pumps into our bloodstream, our hearts beat faster, our blood pressure and pulse rate increase, we start breathing more rapidly, and the extra oxygen goes to the brain, making us more alert and sharpening our senses.
Glucose and fats release into the bloodstream, supplying all our body parts with extra energy. When this happens, our repair, restorative and housekeeping mechanisms take a back seat.
While these conditions do us damage if they occur occasionally, experiencing the stress response for an extended period stresses out our bodies. This can lead to existing health conditions worsening and to various lifestyle diseases and conditions.
Signs That Lack of Sleep Is Affecting Your Health
Being in a near-constant state of “fight or flight” isn’t the only sign that inconsistent sleep is affecting our health.
Here are a few other signs that you're not getting enough Zzz’s:
Weight Gain
Inconsistent sleep can interrupt the rhythm of two important hormones connected with hunger—ghrelin (the hunger-inducing hormone) and leptin (the hormone associated with feeling full or satiated).
A lack of sleep could lead to too much ghrelin and too little leptin, leaving us feeling hungry all the time.
The result is that we’re more likely to overeat and gain a few extra pounds.
To make matters worse, high cortisol levels can trigger a specific fat storage pattern, leading to fat storage around our vital organs in your midsection.
Digestive Problems
The fluctuations in our reproductive hormones during midlife not only lead to an increase in hot flashes, drowsiness and moodiness, but it can also lead to digestive problems too. Gut microbes help convert estrogen to its active form, which is possibly one of the reasons why perimenopausal women may experience an increase in gut or digestive problems.
Where does sleep fit into this equation? Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the digestive issues that we might experience in midlife and IBS links to sleep. Hormonal depletion can lead to sleep deprivation, which in turn can amplify the effects on the gastrointestinal system.
If you have poor sleep habits, those habits can disrupt your meal timings and the release of the sleep hormone melatonin, which helps to control intestinal mobility. These disruptions affect the gastrointestinal system, which could lead to digestive enzymes being released at strange times, causing gas formation, acid reflux/GERD, and a range of other issues.
Other Health Issues
Inconsistent sleep has been linked to several other health issues in women.
Some of these issues include disrupting hormones linked to fertility and libido, bone health deterioration due to the impairment of the bone remodeling that usually takes place when we sleep, increased hot flashes due to a lack of melatonin, and a possible increased risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s.
Tips For a Good Night’s Sleep
Follow these simple tips to help ensure that you consistently get a good night’s sleep:
Maintain a regular bedtime and wake-up time
Get some exercise
Develop a daytime routine that supports better sleep at night
Don’t eat too close to bedtime
Avoid screentime like social media, watching TV, browsing the web, etc., before going to bed
Use a sleep tracker to understand your sleep patterns
Ensure your room is dark
Keep the temperature of your bedroom cool
Use a sleep spray or other natural aids to help you fall asleep
It’s clear sleep is intrinsically linked to your mental and physical well-being in your middle years. So, if you’re a midlife mama, you need to give your body the rest it needs. Your health depends on it!