The HPA axis - and thus, your body’s cortisol levels - are affected by many of the same factors that influence other aspects of your overall health. Studies have shown that insomnia and other forms of sleep deprivation cause your body to secrete more cortisol during the day, perhaps in an effort to stimulate alertness. Those sleep disturbances can wreak further havoc on your HPA axis, distorting your body’s production of cortisol. Researchers have found that when the HPA axis is overly active, it can disrupt your sleep cycles, causing: Most of your deeper slow wave sleep happens in the first half of the night, while REM sleep happens more during the second half of the night. REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is the part of your sleep cycle when you have vivid dreams.Ī sleep cycle lasts about 90 minutes, and during that time you move through these four stages of sleep. This phase is also known as “slow wave sleep.” It’s when your heart rate, breathing, and brainwaves are slowest. You spend about 50 percent of your sleep cycle in this phase. Your body’s systems relax further, your core temperature drops, and your brain waves are slower. This stage lasts a few minutes as you drift from being awake to being asleep. Non-REM (non-rapid eye movement) sleep has 3 stages. Your body goes through various stages of sleep each night. Some of those smaller bursts of cortisol correspond to shifts in your sleep cycles. In addition to the circadian cycle, around 15 to 18 smaller pulses of cortisol are released throughout the day and night. For many people, the peak is around 9 a.m. It peaks about an hour after you wake up. The production of cortisol in your body follows a similar circadian rhythm.Ĭortisol production drops to its lowest point around midnight. Every 24 hours, roughly synchronized with nighttime and daytime, your body enters a period of sleep followed by a waking period. Your sleep-wake cycle follows a circadian rhythm. When something disrupts the HPA axis functions, it can disrupt your sleep cycles as well. Sleep and the stress response share the same pathway: the HPA axis. So what does cortisol have to do with sleep?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |