If you’re waking up in the middle of the night, there’s a 99.99% chance that cortisol is involved in that process.

Cortisol levels can rise due to a number of different physiological stress responses.

Being awakened at night no matter what the reason is not fun. If you do not do the right things after you’re awake, you could end up lying in bed for another hour or more.

Our twins just turned 6 and since they were 5 months old, they’ve slept at least 10 hours a night without making a noise or even waking up once. I can recall one time my wife woke me up to help deliver milk to one of my sons in the 6 years they’ve been with us.

I’m jealous because every now and then I’ll wake up in the middle of the night to go pee. Sometimes I’ll wake up if I get too hot. But it is frustrating sometimes because I work so hard at optimizing my sleep!

Our kids just do it effortlessly. I’m jealous! 🙂

But first let’s learn what cortisol actually is so we can start working with it.

What Is Cortisol?

Cortisol is a hormone that the body produces in the adrenal cortex (outer layer of the adrenal glands) in response to stress. The role of cortisol is primarily to mitigate stress by providing glucose to the body to break down proteins.

According to the Cleveland Clinic

Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced by the adrenal glands, which sit on top of each kidney, that affects many different parts of the body. It’s also known as the “stress hormone” because it’s released into the bloodstream when a person is stressed or in danger.

Cortisol has many important functions, including:

1. Helping the body use glucose, protein, and fats: Cortisol increases blood sugar levels and enhances the brain’s use of glucose. The body can use these extra amounts of glucose and fatty acids as fuel during times of stress or danger.

2. Responding to stress or danger: Cortisol slows down nonessential or harmful functions during a fight-or-flight response. It also increases alertness and exertion.

3. Controlling blood pressure: Cortisol can help regulate blood pressure.
Reducing inflammation: Cortisol suppresses various elements of the immune system, which can reduce inflammation, pain, and swelling.

4. Helping control sleep-wake cycle: Cortisol can help regulate the body’s sleep-wake cycle.

Cortisol will rise naturally as the night progresses. Cortisol is usually the highest around dawn (which oddly enough is when the sun starts coming up) which is considered the most “stressful” time of the night.

If you’re sleeping in a completely dark room, with a good sleep mask on, inside a house, how does your body know that the sun is rising and it’s time to release cortisol to wake up? We’ll get into that a bit below.

What Causes Cortisol To Rise at Night?

There are  many causes of cortisol rising during the night. Some of them could be…

Hypothyroidism

If you have hypothyroidism your ability to store glucose is limited. As a result your cortisol and adrenalin levels will rise almost immediately upon going to bed. This condition will make falling asleep much more difficult because of the perceived stress response. Adrenaline usually peaks around 1 or 2am and cortisol peaks around dawn.

If you have hypothyroidism I would work on fixing that so that your sleep/wake cycles are more regulated. In the meantime, as a before bed snack, I like a teaspoon of raw organic honey and a 1 ounce shot glass of filtered water with 1/8 teaspoon of sea salt. I usually take the sea salt shot first so I can have the last thing in my mouth be something sweet. 🙂

Aging & Stressful Conditions

As we age our ability to generate energy properly in cytochrome c-oxidase (complex 4) of our mitochondria decreases. As we age we’re exposed to toxins, chemicals heavy metals etc and all of these prevent electrons from passing over the outer mitochondrial membrane to make ATP. When we’re not making as much energy, we’re producing free radicals and our ability to deal with simple stressors in life is lessened.

If the body can make enough energy, it can heal from almost any disease and fix your sleep issues. Energy is king and energy is regulated by light.

Deficiencies

If you’re deficient in minerals, protein, electrolytes and vitamins, this can cause hormones to be imbalanced or to be released at the wrong times.

Thyroid Function Blockage

The changes happening while we sleep affect thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels and as a result can lower T3 and T4 which can disturb sleep. Conversion of T4 to active T3 happens in  your liver and “Liver Time” is between 1 and 3 am.

Since the liver has over 500 functions (one of them being sleep), improving overall liver health would be a wise thing to do.

General Nighttime Stress

With aging our response to stress becomes heightened. This means a small event, could set us off internally. Think about if you were sleep deprived for 5 days how easily it would be to alter your mood with one single unplanned event. Aging is similar to not sleeping in this regard. It decreases our ability to mitigate stress.

Think about when you were a kid, you could easily sleep on the floor of a friends house or even sleep outside with no issues. That’s because your body made energy more effectively with no exhaust (oxidative stress) to create a normal stress response.

Normal 24/hr Cortisol Cycles

• Morning (6-8 AM): Cortisol spikes up to get you ready for the day. This is your highest level. Think of it as nature’s way of giving you a morning coffee boost.
• Midday (12 PM): Levels start to drop but should still be reasonably high, keeping you alert and functional.
• Afternoon (3-5 PM): Cortisol continues to decrease. You might notice a dip in energy, but you should still be able to function well if your circadian rhythms are intact.
• Evening (8-10 PM): This is when your cortisol should be at its lowest. Your body is winding down, preparing for sleep.
• Night (12-4 AM): Cortisol remains low to facilitate deep sleep and repair processes.

How To Fix The Cortisol Awakening Response

Circadian Rhythm

Your circadian rhythm comes from nature. The more connected you are to your natural environment (being outside) the more able you are to fix your circadian rhythm.

Your circadian rhythm can be altered by temperature, altitude, location, diet and more. But the #1 way to quickly change and upgrade your circadian rhythms if though light.

Light is King. Light is the photonic input to your pineal gland, hypothalamus and suprachiasmatic nucleus. Your SCN is the master internal circadian clock that runs all the other clocks in your body.

Here are a few ways you can alter your circadian rhythm

1. Sleep in a blacked out room, with a high quality sleep mask
2. Watch the sunrise every morning.
3. Block blue light during the day with Iris Tech and yellow blue blocking glasses
4. Get regular sun breaks during the day while grounded with no sunglasses on (even if for 30 seconds)
5. At sunset, wear orange glasses
6. Invest in circadian lighting in your home
7. 2 to 3 hours before sunset, wear red blue blocking glasses
8. Avoid eating after sunset
9. Avoid all blue light after sunset

There are more ways to improve your circadian rhythm but this is a great start. For me this is a way of life. At this point it’s second nature. It’s important to note that you must do these every single day for the rest of your life, if you want to sleep well.

Conclusion

To fix your cortisol awakening response  you’ll need to work on liver health, thyroid health and reconnecting to nature to give you the foundation for a healthy circadian rhythm. I’ve been able to do this and my sleep these days is incredible compared to what it was before.

Fixing the timing and secretion of hormones like cortisol and adrenaline is possible but it takes reconnecting with nature and adopting and entirely new and healthy lifestyle.

Questions:

• Do you value yourself enough to put in the work to do it?
• What do you do regularly now for sleep?
• Is it helping?
• What time is the ideal time you’d like to go to bed each night and wake up? And why?

Comment below!