Fertility and Sleep
Do you know what rarely gets the spotlight when it comes to optimizing your fertility? Research shows that sleep is foundational and essential to our health. Yet, it’s seldom discussed in the fertility clinic experience and isn’t up there among diet and exercise in the standard fertility optimization recommendations.
Now, I’ve done a lot of research and extra learning on sleep. Sleep has become a bit of an Achilles heel for me since the birth of my daughter five years ago. When I became a terrible insomniac, the change in my hormones and my nervous system created a downstream effect and negatively impacted my sleep. I was one of those people who would fall asleep, no problem, and then wake up at 2 a.m. and toss and turn for hours, because I couldn’t shut my mind off. It significantly impacted my quality of life.
After learning everything I could about sleep, I’m now able to manage my insomnia and it really isn’t a thing for me anymore...most of the time. What I learned from my many months of research is astounding. The level of impact that sleep has on our overall health is surprising and staggering. Since we focus on a holistic and full-body view of fertility on the show, I’ll be talking all about sleep in this quick episode.
Show Notes:
[02:12] - Let’s start with a foundation of understanding for how much sleep we need to achieve an optimal baseline of health. Here’s what a National Sleep Foundation study found out.
[02:52] - Chronic sleep deprivation affects every aspect of how the body functions.
[03:04] - If you get less than this many hours of sleep regularly, you’re at a significantly increased risk for these health problems.
[03:15] - Let’s discuss a few ways sleep can affect our fertility. Michelle dives a little deeper into why optimal health equals optimal fertility.
[03:48] - Chronically sleep-deprived individuals produce lower levels of this hormone which may contribute to lower egg quality.
[04:51] - Another consideration for how sleep affects fertility is through immune system regulation.
[05:48] - What does seven to nine hours of healthy sleep look like? Michelle breaks it down quickly.
[06:19] - If you’re giving yourself enough time to sleep but still experience problems, here’s what you can adjust to get better sleep.
[07:23] - These pieces of technology wreak havoc on our ability to sleep. Here’s how to handle them before you go to bed each night.
[08:08] - Michelle discusses this surprising fact about the life of caffeine and how it affects quality sleep.
[08:45] - People often use these two substances to help them fall asleep, but they actually negatively impact the deepest, most restorative sleep cycle.
[09:39] - Michelle gives acknowledgment and a piece of advice to those who may not be able to implement the previous suggestions due to lifestyle obligations.
National Sleep Foundation study
Why We Sleep by Dr. Matthew Walker
“The Secret to Improving Your Metabolism, Reaction Time and Longevity” Trained podcast episode
@fertilityacademy on Instagram
