How To Hack Your Sleep Schedule

How Does Cortisol Affect Our Sleep?

From cortisol cocktails to cortisol face, the stress hormone has been trending on TikTok for some time now. While our levels fluctuate naturally, an imbalance can cause a number of issues in the body – and the first sign your cortisol cycle may be out of sync? Poor sleep.

‘Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced in the adrenal glands that makes us feel alert,’ explains Karolina Löfqvist, CEO of Hormona. ‘It’s one of our primary stress hormones, and follows a natural daily rhythm, peaking in the morning to help us wake up and decreasing at night to allow us to relax and fall asleep.’

Although cortisol is often seen as a negative, the hormone has many important functions, such as reducing inflammation and maintaining blood pressure. But when our levels are imbalanced, it can cause health issues – crucially, impacting our sleep.

So how can we rebalance our hormones to get a better night’s kip? The experts from hormone tracking app Hormona share their top tips.

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Their approach centres on a unique blend of Australian Merino wool and bamboo silk, a technical fabric engineered to adapt to the body's needs throughout the night. Merino wool, a natural marvel, breathes effortlessly, regulating temperature by trapping warmth in the cold and wicking away moisture in the heat. This ensures a consistently comfortable sleep environment, fostering the conditions for uninterrupted slumber.

Ask The Expert: Dr Ross J. Barr

We ask acupuncture and Eastern medicine specialist Dr Ross J. Barr everything we need to know about the role of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in understanding sleep.

What is the TCM approach to sleep?

There’s a huge focus on sleep in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). And Eastern medicine recognises so many physiological reasons why sleep varies so much. TCM has spent over 3,000 years studying the art of sleep, and it understands its beautifully well.

And what can it tell us about irregularities in our sleep pattern?

TCM puts a huge onus on the different types of sleep imbalances we have; small details are incredibly important in helping a practitioner diagnose the root cause of the issue.

A specific example would be that someone who is very prone to running on adrenaline could often find they wake up earlier than everyone else in the house (and earlier than they need to). The next step would be to address the source of all this adrenaline – stress, anxiety or imbalanced hormones, maybe. 

Anything else we should know?

Sleep is not something that can be fixed overnight, or by throwing money at it. It will usually be about us taking better care of ourselves. And with TCM, it’s about using the little details to see the bigger picture when it comes to sleep.

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