How Poor Sleep Impacts Your Hormones
Our hormones play a very big part on our overall health. Hormonal health and regulation can significantly improve and balance our emotional health and maintain a positive mood and headspace. Many people assume that hormone balance has to do with birth control or even medication, not realizing that there are so many different things in our lives and environments that can impact our hormone levels.
More often than not, hormone imbalances can be caused by things that we don't even realize are impacting us. It's not always about medication and birth control, or even our period, but it can also be foods that we eat, the type of products we use, lotions, makeup, or even things we smell and inhale, too. Finding the proper hormonal balance for our bodies is pivotal for our health, so finding out if we're doing anything to throw off that balance is crucial, too.
Not getting enough sleep can throw off our hormone levels and blood sugar
Several things that we are doing can throw off our hormonal balance. One of these things is the type of food we are eating. Having food that has been genetically modified can have a negative impact on our hormones, with too much actually causing infertility in some (via Food and Chemical Toxicology). Stress also plays a very large factor in our hormones. High stress levels can cause issues with blood pressure, blood sugar, and even our heart. These things can then impact our hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, and adrenaline (via American Psychological Association).
Another factor of hormonal imbalance is a poor night's sleep. This can go hand-in-hand with stress. When we're overstressed and don't sleep fully through the night, our bodies can become out of whack. When we don't get enough sleep, our appetite and our blood sugar is impacted. Many people crave more junk food when they lack sleep, which also plays a role with an imbalance in hormones, as well (via Bustle).
Making sure we eat healthy, get a full night's sleep, and also manage and maintain our stress levels is how we can help to keep our hormones regulated and our moods bright and shining!