5 Proven Tips to Help You Regulate Your Cortisol and Improve Your Sleep
By: Kelly Murray, Certified Adult Sleep Coach, FDN-P
Here’s something that can seriously screw up your sleep in a big way:
Cortisol
For being a small little hormone, it certainly can do a lot of damage.
What Is Cortisol and How Does It Impact Sleep?
Cortisol is what I like to call a “Goldilocks hormone”. We need just the right amount of it. Too little and we feel groggy and sluggish; too much and we feel hyped up, stressed and sleepless.
Although cortisol can get a bad rap, we actually need it for survival. It helps to keep us alert, it regulates our blood sugar, and it supports our circadian rhythm. But when our cortisol levels are out of whack, it can throw our sleep cycle into a tailspin. Too much cortisol can make it hard to fall asleep and stay asleep — as does too little cortisol.
If your sleep is wrecked, chances are your body is either producing too much or too little cortisol, and we want your body to produce just the right amount.
You're likely wondering, how do I keep my cortisol levels in check? Here are my top five tips…
Tip 1: Practice Yoga Nidra Before Bed
In order to get good quality sleep, our bodies need to feel safe. If we don’t feel safe, our bodies will become hyper vigilant at night to ward off any predators. In today's fast-paced society, we are unfortunately inundated with stress, which can leave our body feeling anything but safe. This is why so many of us struggle to sleep. Unfortunately, we're likely not going to be able to eliminate stress from our life, but we certainly can counteract it. This is where yoga nidra comes in.
This deep relaxation practice is like a guided meditation. It helps you calm your nervous system by taking the focus off of your thoughts and placing them on relaxing your body instead.
A randomized control trial published in 2021 found that when practiced before bed, yoga nidra not only significantly reduced cortisol levels, but also improved sleep quality. The practice involves lying down in a comfortable position, where you’re then guided through a series of relaxation techniques and visualizations.
You're probably thinking, “Sign me up!” If you want to give yoga nidra a try, I recommend checking out my favorite instructor that can be found on YouTube. Her name is Ally Boothroyd, and she has a large library of yoga nidra tracks that you can listen to either before bed, throughout the day when you're feeling sluggish, and when you're struggling to sleep.
Yoga nidra has been a complete game changer for both myself and my clients. If you give it a try, I'm sure you're going to fall in love with it too.
My favorite yoga nidra tracks are:
To Wind Down Before Bed
30-Minute Yoga Nidra for Relaxation
15-Minute Yogan Nidra for the Nervous System
To Fall Asleep More Quickly
45-Minute Yoga Nidra to Fall Asleep
Breathing Into Sleep
To Fall Back to Sleep When You Wake Up Overnight
Yoga Nidra from Insomnia 1.5 hours
2-Hour Yoga Nidra for Insomnia
To Recharge Your Battery During the Day
Yoga Nidra from Deep Rest - 10 minutes
10-Minute Nervous System Massage
Tip 2: Get Sunlight Exposure
Taking short "sun snacks" (as I like to call them) throughout the day can do wonders for your circadian rhythm, as well as keep cortisol levels at bay. This is because our body needs strong signals from the sun to know what time it is. Our body expects to see bright light during the day, and if you're spending all your time indoors, your body becomes confused, as the intensity of artificial light is much less than that of natural sunlight. For example, indoor lighting is usually around 1,000 lux, whereas the light from the sun is anywhere from 1,000 lux on a cloudy day up to 100,000 lux on a sunny day. A 2010 study showed that 6.7 hours of bright light exposure during the day significantly lowered cortisol levels when compared to individuals who are exposed to dim light throughout the day.
Unfortunately, the authors of the study did not explain why this happened, but my guess is that sunlight helps to keep our HPA axis (the glands responsible for producing cortisol) healthy because they're getting proper signaling from our environment, the sun.
As it goes without saying, unless you work outdoors, you're likely not getting 6.7 hours of sunlight a day. But the good news is that you don't have to quit your job and become a park ranger. Research shows that just getting 30 minutes of natural sunlight exposure daily can significantly improve your sleep.
I recommend to my clients to try to get 10 minutes in the morning, during the midday, and late afternoon in order to keep their circadian rhythm in sync with the environment.
Tip 3: Balance Your Blood Sugar
Get specific about your diet and fill it with protein, healthy fats, and fibrous veggies.When you're eating foods that contain a lot of sugar and starch, this is going to spike your blood sugar and it's going to go really, really high. And what comes up must come down. Subsequently, your blood sugar rebounds and falls to a suboptimal level. All of this is stressful for your body and prompts it to enter “fight or flight” in order to raise your blood sugar with the help of our friend cortisol.
Cortisol aids in a process called gluconeogenesis. It's a process in the liver that converts non carbohydrate substrates like amino acids and glycerol into glucose. Cortisol also makes your cells less insulin-sensitive so that the sugar stays in your bloodstream longer. That being said, if you are constantly riding the blood sugar roller coaster due to those venti caramel macchiatos you are chugging (no judgment here!), it is going to lead to high cortisol. Studies show that individuals with type two diabetes have cortisol levels that are 36% higher than non diabetics.
If that sounds like you, I would trade in those sugary foods for balanced meals with a good mix of protein, healthy fats, and fibrous vegetables. An easy way to accomplish this is to first aim to eat at least 100 grams of protein throughout the day (about 30 grams or more per meal). Make sure to also include some healthy fats by way of foods such as fattier pieces of meat, grass fed butter, or avocados. Then, pile on those veggies. You can still eat some healthy starch, such as rice, potatoes, and sweet potatoes, but do so in moderation.
If you eat this way, trust me, your blood sugar, cortisol, and sleep will thank you.
Tip 4: Take an Adaptogen like Ashwagandha to Modulate Stress
Adaptogens are natural substances that help your body adapt to stress and maintain balance. Ashwagandha in particular has been shown to significantly reduce cortisol levels. In fact, a study published in the Indian Journal of Psychological Medicine found that Ashwagandha reduced cortisol levels by up to 30% in chronically stressed adults (and who isn't chronically stressed these days?) Adding this powerful herb into your routine can not only help you to manage stress more effectively, but also help you to sleep better. However, as it goes without saying, please ask your doctor before adding any supplements to your routine. If you get the clear from them, I have linked my favorite ashwagandha supplement here.
Tip 5: Look Into Functional Lab Testing
I want you to do this especially if you’ve tried all the things that I’ve listed here. Functional lab tests can uncover hidden stressors like gut dysbiosis, heavy metals, and hormonal imbalances. These hidden stressors are adding to your stress bucket and leading to elevated levels of cortisol. When left unchecked, they wreak havoc on your HPA axis and lead to dysfunction. To learn more about this, check out this post all about how HPA axis dysfunction leads to sleep issues.
The nice thing about alleviating these hidden stressors is that it will decrease the contents of your stress bucket. That way, when you are mentally and emotionally stressed, it's not going to have as big of an impact.
If this is something you want to explore, I recommend going to a functional medicine provider or you can work with me. I am a Certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, and this is a service I provide to my clients with amazing results, especially for those individuals who have tried everything under the sun to fix their sleep with no luck. If you're interested in working together, you can schedule a free 30-minute discovery call so that I can learn more about your situation and explain how I can help.
Let’s Get You Sleeping!
So there you have it: my five tips to help you better manage your cortisol and get the sleep you need and deserve.
Remember: keeping cortisol levels just right is the key to getting good quality sleep and feeling energized and well-rested.
If you have any questions or want personalized support, please don't hesitate to reach out. I’m just a free discovery call away!
Sweet Dreams
Kelly Murray is a certified sleep coach and an award-winning pediatric sleep consultant based in Chicago offering sleep coaching services nationwide.