Fix Your Sleep, Fix Your Menstrual Cycle

sleep and menstrual cycle, improve your sleep and improve your menstrual cycles, sleep affects your period, too little sleep can affect your period, sleep and cycles, sleep and periods
Medically reviewed by J. Stuart Wolf, Jr., MD, FACS

According to the CDC, 34.8 percent of women regularly do not get at least 7 hours of sleep per night. The numbers are even worse among teenage girls: 71.3 percent of female high school students regularly miss out on good sleep [1]. The price of missed sleep can be steep, affecting one’s mental health and physical health–even to the point of negatively affecting one’s fertility.  

As females, sleep deprivation negatively affects our menstrual cycles, immune function, mood, hormone balance, memory, and appetite. More specifically, studies show that too little sleep makes you more likely to develop diabetes, cancer, depression, high blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease [2]. 

Our quality of sleep is tied to our circadian rhythm, which is our body’s biological clock and regulates the timing of when you want to do certain things– like sleep or eat. The National Sleep Foundation says a tiny part in your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, along with other natural factors in your body, produce circadian rhythms built around a 24-hour day. Signals in the environment, like daylight, exercise and temperature, also affect those rhythms.

What controls our sleep?

A group of hormones are highly regulated by your circadian and sleep-wake cycles. These include melatonin, cortisol, thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), prolactin, leptin, and insulin, and their levels vary across the 24-hour day. Evidence suggests that these hormones, as well as body temperature, play a key role in our sleep cycles and are themselves affected by sleep itself (or lack thereof) [3]. 

These relationships can be further affected by the menstrual cycle. The fluctuations in reproductive hormones that occur throughout the menstrual cycle can influence sleep, body temperature, and the other hormones mentioned above.

Your menstrual cycle may disturb your sleep

Sleep disruptions are common in women, with reports of insomnia occurring 1.5–2 times more frequently than in men [4]. According to the National Sleep Foundation, up to 7 in 10 women say that their sleep changes in the premenstrual part of their cycle, or about 3 to 6 days before their period begins. Even those without significant menstrual-related complaints often report poorer sleep quality and greater sleep disturbance during the premenstrual week as compared to other times of their menstrual cycles. 

We also know that women get less REM sleep during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. (The luteal phase is the phase after ovulation occurs, and before one’s period begins.) REM sleep is the type of sleep when we have most of our dreams, and it is critical for good rest. After ovulation, the hormone progesterone rises. Progesterone is a calming hormone and is good at helping you sleep, but progesterone levels naturally start to drop a few days before your period (in fact, it is the drop in progesterone that actually causes your period). This progesterone withdrawal preceding and precipitating menses is thought to cause disturbances in a woman’s sleep. 

For women with severe premenstrual syndrome (PMS), the expected drop in progesterone usually occurs sooner and more suddenly, causing more significant sleep issues. Women with severe PMS likewise report more disturbing dreams, sleepiness, fatigue, and insomnia during the premenstrual phase of their cycles. 

Poor sleep may disturb your menstrual cycle

We’ve talked about how our naturally fluctuating hormones may affect female sleep, but the road goes both ways: the amount and quality of sleep you get has a deep impact on your hormones as well. This, in turn, affects your menstrual cycle. 

Proof of how disruption in sleep causes disturbances in menstrual function is seen in female shift workers. Compared to non-shift workers, women who work odd hours are more likely to report menstrual irregularity and longer menstrual cycles [4].

As mentioned above, many of our hormones are regulated by sleep, including those that regulate our reproductive function. Leptin, cortisol, and insulin levels in particular are impacted by sleep quality and quantity:

Leptin – Essential for promoting ovulation, regulating menstruation, and promoting a healthy uterine lining. Interrupted sleep makes leptin levels drop, which disrupts regular cycles, ovulation, and causes a scant uterine lining (also known as the endometrium). Too little leptin also makes you hungrier and more likely to gain weight.

Cortisol – When you don’t get enough sleep, your body makes up for it by making the stress hormone cortisol to get you through the day. Progesterone is taken away from menstrual cycle tasks to make that cortisol, which leaves you with imbalanced hormones.

Insulin – Sleep is required for a healthy metabolism. When sleep is disturbed, your body decreases its sensitivity to insulin (a warning sign for type 2 diabetes), your appetite increases, causing weight gain, ovulatory irregularity, and decreased fertility.

So which comes first: poor sleep or imbalanced hormones?

Our bodies are controlled by a complex system of hormones, and if one hormone or one system is out of balance, others will be affected, too. Nothing happens in isolation within our bodies; every function is tied to another. As women, sleep affects our menstrual cycles and menstrual cycles affect our sleep. The good news is if we work to improve one, the other will likely improve as well. 

How to improve your sleep (and your cycle)

Now that you understand how important sleep is for keeping our hormones in balance, how can you improve your sleep?

The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get 7-9 hours of sleep each night. Consider, too, our pre-teen and teen daughters who are likely to not get enough sleep, and thus suffer from menstrual problems. It’s recommended that girls aged 6-13 get 9-11 hours of sleep each night, and girls aged 14-17 get 8-10 hours of sleep.

Whether it’s you or your daughter who needs to work on your “sleep hygiene,” the basics are the same. Here are some guidelines for improving your sleep:

  1. Sleep in complete darkness – This means no tv, no night light, no electronics, no street light through the window–you get the picture! Nighttime light exposure suppresses melatonin, which is the hormone that maintains your sleep/wake cycle.
  2. Minimize your blue light exposure at night time – Blue light is bright daytime light and it comes from the sun, digital screens, and fluorescent and LED lights. Blue light suppresses melatonin, which makes you sleepy at night. Some simple ways to minimize blue light at night: ideally turn off screens 2-3 hrs before bed (but even 30 minutes is helpful), use an app or special setting to turn your screen orange or red, use blue-light blocking sunglasses, and dim the lights in your home in the evening.
  3. Limit caffeine consumption – At the very least, try to avoid caffeine after lunch, so it won’t interfere with your sleep.
  4. Get some exercise during the day – Regular exercise reduces the time it takes to fall asleep and improves your sleep quality.
  5. Create a restful night-time routine – Create a simple bedtime ritual that will signal to your brain that it’s time for sleep. This may include a shower/bath, brushing your teeth, shutting off devices and a few minutes in prayer or reflection.
  6. Go to bed and get up at the same time each day – This is a top recommendation from sleep experts to train your body to feel ready for sleep at a certain time. Getting up at the same time every day is even more critical than getting to bed at exactly the same time each night. 

If you suspect you have sleep issues related to your menstrual cycle, many women find that it helps to keep a diary of their sleep quality. Keep track of your symptoms each day alongside your menstrual cycle tracking or fertility awareness charting. After 3 months or so, you should be able to see if there’s a link between your sleep quality and your cycle. If you find there is such a link, a restorative reproductive health professional can help you find the hormonal balance you need to regain better sleep. 

Good quality sleep is vital for all your body’s functions. Whatever else you do, if you can’t fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up rested, it’s incredibly difficult to fix any other part of your health. Cultivating better sleep habits is probably the best place to start when working to improve your menstrual cycle, so assess your sleep quality and make some changes to improve your sleep hygiene. And don’t forget to teach your daughters this life skill–they’ll have a lifetime of better health if they learn good sleep habits now!

References

[1] CDC – Data and Statistics – Sleep and Sleep Disorders. Cdc.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/sleep/data_statistics.html. Published 2022. Accessed February 9, 2022.

[2] Colten HR, Altevogt BM, editors. Sleep Disorders and Sleep Deprivation: An Unmet Public Health Problem. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2006. 3, Extent and Health Consequences of Chronic Sleep Loss and Sleep Disorders. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK19961/

[3] Tae Won Kim, Jong-Hyun Jeong, Seung-Chul Hong. “The Impact of Sleep and Circadian Disturbance on Hormones and Metabolism” Int J Endocrinol. 2015; 2015: 591729.

Published online 2015 Mar 11. doi: 10.1155/2015/591729

[4] C. N. Soares, “Insomnia in women: an overlooked epidemic?” Archives of Women’s Mental Health, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 205–213, 2005.

[5] Baker FC, Driver HS. Circadian rhythms, sleep, and the menstrual cycle. Sleep Med. 2007 Sep;8(6):613-22. doi: 10.1016/j.sleep.2006.09.011. Epub 2007 Mar 26. PMID: 17383933.

Additional Reading:

Regulate your Circadian Rhythm to Improve your Fertility

The Pill vs. The Sandman: How Hormonal Contraception Messes With Your Sleep

FAM Basics: Progesterone

Natural Womanhood Book Review: In the Flo by Alisa Vitti

Total
1
Shares

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Prev
Uterine fibroids: Causes, symptoms, and treatments
uterine fibroids, fibroids, black women and fibroids, fibroids and infertility, fibroids and pregnancy complications, fibroids infertile, ttc with fibroids, trying to get pregnant with fibroids

Uterine fibroids: Causes, symptoms, and treatments

If you’ve ever heard the term “uterine fibroids,” it’s likely because the

Next
A vasectomy can’t repair a broken love life—and it might cut a relationship short

A vasectomy can’t repair a broken love life—and it might cut a relationship short

In researching the phenomenon of vasectomy regret, I came across a Reddit thread

You May Also Like