What Your Sleep Is Trying to Tell You in Midlife

Your body’s not broken. It's talking.

In this episode of The Menopause Method, Cam Allen shares how sleep is your body’s nightly feedback loop, a report card on how well you’re managing hormones, stress, and recovery in midlife.

You’ll learn:
✨ How light and blue screens block melatonin and raise cortisol
✨ Why your body can’t produce melatonin and cortisol at the same time
✨ Simple bedtime rituals that help your nervous system feel safe enough to rest
✨ What your 3am wake-ups are really trying to tell you

Because sleep isn’t just rest. It's how your body heals.

🕊 Resources Mentioned:
👉 Free Supplement Guide for Women [LINK GUIDE https://www.camoyler.com/supplements]
👉 10-Min Strength Workouts: Menopause Minis (Save $20 with code CAMYOUTUBE)

📚 Watch Next:
▶ Episode 1: How to Use Biofeedback in Menopause https://youtu.be/V5BJH6E6zdI?si=-V9ZLpLmh9rraCoT
▶ Upcoming: Stress, Energy, and the Art of Recovery

Chapter:
00:00 Sleep: Your Body's Report Card
03:50 Melatonin's Role in Restful Sleep
09:19 Optimize Metabolism with Better Sleep
12:11 Evening Ambiance for Better Sleep
15:16 Bedtime Reading for Better Mornings
16:26 Exploring Stress, Digestion, and Recovery

#MenopauseSleep #MidlifeHealth #Biofeedback #MenopauseTips #CamAllen #TheMenopauseMethod #Perimenopause #SleepBetter #HormoneHealth #WomenOver45

Transcript

0:00

Have you ever had one of those nights where you're exhausted but your body refuses to rest? Maybe you toss and turn and your brain will not be quiet. And you swear you've tried it all. All the things. Melatonin, meditation, magnesium, the tea, all of it. Or maybe you're the kind of woman that falls right asleep, but you wake up at 3am staring at the ceiling, wondering what your body's problem is. And then your brain starts making lists, you know, like thinking about your day or thinking about something that happened in the past. Believe me, I have been there too. Hey there. I'm Cam Allen. Welcome back to the Menopause Method. In this episode, we're gonna talk about sleep not just as rest, but as biofeedback. It's actually your body's nightly report card on how well you're supporting your nervous system, what your hormones are doing, and, like, are you recovering? Because when someone says, listen to your body, what the heck does that mean? So by the end of this episode, I want you to see as sleep as part of the conversation, one that tells you what really is going on beneath the surface in your body. So let me take you back to 2019. I was one year post hysterectomy and I was sharing my bed with two cats, two dogs, and a TV remote. I'd fall asleep to whatever show was on, like, instantly. I was the woman that fell asleep. Half the time I couldn't even tell you what I was watching. It was just like noise in the background, you know, Are you like that? And like clockwork, I would wake up at 3am and instead of rolling over and going back to sleep, I'd get interested in whatever late night nonsense was playing. And honestly, a lot of times it was a stupid info commercial. You know what I'm talking about. At the time, I did not realize how much those habits. The animals in my bed, which was really hot and you couldn't move, and then the tv, I didn't realize those habits were really wrecking me. Believe me, I was tired, I was cranky, I was postmenopausal. And my workouts felt a lot harder than they should. What I didn't know was how much light, especially blue light from screens was actually messing with my hormones. And let's be honest. And then a positive, we don't eat anything messing with our hormones. Our body's already doing that nonsense. We need to have things dialed in. But here's the thing. When light hits your eyes, even just a little bit, it tells your brain, hey, it's daytime. And that one signal sets down your melatonin, and that's your sleepy hormone that helps you feel sleepy and goes to bed and. And it kicks up the cortisol, that blue light. And cortisol is the hormone that keeps you alert and ready to go. And here's something I didn't know, but once I learned this, it changed everything. Your body does not release melatonin and cortisol at the same time. It's either melatonin or cortisol. It's either rest with melatonin or alertness with cortisol. It's either night mode and with melatonin or go mode with cortisol. One has to be lower for the other one to rise. So when I started falling asleep with the TV on, and also I had my phone next to my bedside table, I was basically sending my body this mixed message. Go to sleep, but really stay awake. So I fell asleep fine. And I wondered why I was so confused, foggy, and constantly exhausted. Because if you've ever woken up at 3am and tossed and turned and then finally fell asleep and then you had to wake up because your alarm went off in the morning and you felt like a train ran over you, I can relate to those things. So let's talk about these two hormones so you can get this dialed in. Melatonin is like your body's nightlight. It rises when the sun goes down. So light coming into your eyes signals your hormones and other body clocks inside of you. What's happening now? The cool thing with melatonin, when the sun goes down and it actually helps your heart rate to slow, you have your resting heart rate, your lowest heart rate of the day while you're sleeping, that is when your body gets to rest and recover. Also, melatonin tells your body to cool down. So if you track of your sleep like I do on the oura ring, it tells me my body temperature is is dropping at night. I can also tell when I'm getting a bug, if you will, because my body temperature doesn't drop when I'm getting sick or something. It also melatonin also tells your brain to prepare to rest and detox. So melatonin is this cozy. Let's get ready for to sleep. Slows your heart, lowers your body temperature and tells your brain, let's go, we're going to rest. Cortisol, on the other hand, is your morning alarm clock. And again, when daylight comes into your eyeballs, it sets off a series of hormone cascades, if you will, and. And one of them. Is your cortisol naturally rising in the morning? It peaks with light. It helps you wake up and it helps you get things done. Are you like me? I get my most of my clarity work done in the morning. That's when I work best. And as soon as the afternoon comes and the light gets dimmer in the sky, I can feel myself getting ready to rest. Now, back in 20, 19 and 20, that was not the case. But now I've synced myself to the daylight. I

really do feel that happening. In fact, I think it was 7: 5:25

30 last night and it was already dark. And I asked my husband, is it time

for bed? And the answer was no, because it was only 7: 5:32

30. But that's what happens when you learn how these hormones work and you sync your body up to them. So when your nights are full of light stimulation, stress, exercise, which you know increases your cortisol, it's going to throw that rhythm off. If cortisol stays too high for too long, melatonin never fully does its job. And your system, your body, pays that price. That's when you're going to notice cravings. The next day you're going to be in the pantry looking for cheap and easy energy in the form of maybe a cracker or a cookie. Because your body's like, I need energy. Give me that cheap carb over there. You're also going to notice your mood tanks. Like any little thing could set you off, whether it's traffic or an email or whatever. And I had this happen in my 40s. My recovery stalled. We should bounce back. Like that's the whole purpose of exercise, to be resilient and be ready to go. You're also going to notice your energy crashes at like 3pm Isn't that funny how the wake up is 3am and and the the crash is 3pm have you ever noticed that? Okay, back to my story. In June of 2020, I finally said, enough is enough. I've learned enough about these hormones. I'm going to figure this out. I made it my business to learn how to sleep. So some things I did, I kicked the animals out of my bed. That was an easy one. That was a hard one. But that was an easy one. Second thing I did, I took the TV out of my room. The TV is not in my room now. Sometimes I'll bring an iPad up here. If the reds are playing a late game, then I might do that. But then I fall asleep straight in my bed and my husband turns off the iPad. So there's that. The Third thing I did is I invested in an oura ring, and I started really paying attention to my patterns. My brain is the kind of brain that seeks out patterns. Anyhow, I noticed a few things if I stayed up past my window. If I stayed up too late, I missed my deep sleep, and I felt crummier the next day. I notice if I drink alcohol, that also disrupts my sleep. Sometimes I'll have hot flashes. Sometimes my body temperature will not drop, and that is because of the alcohol. Another no, no for me is eating late. Your body's going to choose digestion or sleep. And at this stage of the game, at age 56, I want my body to choose sleep, and I just eat more during the daylight hours. What I discovered is sleep is not just rest. It's actually feedback. It's your body's nightly report card, showing you how well you're actually managing the stress, what the heck your hormones are doing, and what are your boundaries about stress? So I love talking about health through the four bodies. So we have our spiritual body, our mental body, and our emotional body. And those bodies form our physical body. So what does sleep look like through these four bodies? Well, sleep touches everything. Not surprising. It's the one place where all four bodies, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Meet up every night to reset. Like, it's healthy to dream, right? That's your spiritual body for sure. So let's start with your physical body. So basically, it's your unconscious mind made visible. It's showing you what's really going on underneath the surface. So when your physical body restores itself at night, it literally detoxes. Your muscles repair. Your hormones get balanced, and your cells regenerate. That's what's happening in your physical body. When your sleep is off, you're gonna notice you're more inflamed. You. You're gonna notice your metabolism isn't optimized because you're in the closet looking for crackers and cookies, and you wake up already feeling behind, like, I can't wait until I can take a nap, or, I can't wait until I can go to bed at night. Have you ever done that? So think of sleep as your body's cleanup crew. No cleanup. You start the day with residue. And the residue could be, like, soreness, bloating, heaviness, anything like that, where your body did not get the chance to actually reset. Okay, what about your emotional body? When you're running on empty, your emotional body feels it. You know, this small, little, tiny things feel humongous. You get Reactive instead of responsive. And believe me, it's not your lack of willpower. It's actually your nervous system saying, hey, lady, I'm not getting a break. Quality sleep brings emotional steadiness back. You can hold more breath and you can recover more easily when you have sleep on board. Okay, what about your mental body, your brain? Well, sleep impacts clarity and decision making. Without it, you're going to notice brain fog thickens with it. Your thoughts are going to line up and your creativity is going to return. You'll notice it in your choices. You'll reach for the protein instead of that sugary snack or that crunchy snack, and you'll say no. You'll actually mean it. And you'll actually remember why you walked into the kitchen in the first place. What about your spiritual body? Rest connects you back to your presence. I love dreaming. REM sleep happens in, like, the early morning hours. So deep sleep happens in the first half of your night, and REM sleep happens in the second half of your night. Dreaming is where we get to connect with our higher self, with God, with spirit. However you believe. And when you're well rested, it's easier to hear your inner knowing. That quiet voice that says, hey, you're okay. You got this. You can slow down. For me, sleep became a spiritual practice. It is a way to honor my body instead of trying to outthink it. And sometimes I wake up with, like, such clarity from my dreams. Very grateful for that. So here's a little mindset shift that changed everything for me. I hope it helps you, too. When you wake up in the middle of the night, instead of thinking you're broken or what's wrong with me, try asking this. What is my body trying to say to me right now? Maybe put your hands on your heart and take some deep breaths and just ask, what. What do you need right now? Body. Maybe it's your body saying, I need less stimulation before bed. That could look like making a buffer between life and sleep. Turning off those screens, dimming the lights. In fact, at my house, we do not put on overhead lights in the evening. We have lights around, like table lamps, and they have, like, a glowy, orangey kind of bulb in them because that's what nature gives us. Think about sunset colors in the evening. You want your house to have sunset colors? Maybe you need to do some gentle stretches or read something that's easy on your mind. Have you ever read something before bed that got your brain going and you didn't sleep well that night? Again, it's feedback. You're not broken. You just did something that turned your brain on, which raised your cortisol and that meant your melatonin could not come out and play. So maybe it's saying, I need to process what happened today before I can rest. Maybe that's what your brain's saying. This has been really helpful for several clients, especially going through, like, midlife divorces. Try journaling before bed. Write down whatever is still circling in your mind. Your worries, your emotions, your to do list, whatever. Dump it out on the page. And once it's on the paper, your brain can stop holding it and your brain can actually rest. And that's what we want. Maybe your brain's saying you could stop scrolling, move your phone away from your bed. In fact, one of the things I did, our phones are in our family room. They are two stories, you know, downstairs away from us. Set it on your dresser or set it outside your room because it's tempting. I know it. Pick up your phone, check your notifications, what's going on on Facebook or Instagram. So maybe replace that late night scroll with something that actually calms you. A cup of tea. Or maybe journal, a gratitude journal for the day. Slow down, make steady breaths. In fact, if I do wake up in the middle of the night, which is rarer these days, I practice breathing and I feel the breath, like move up and down my spinal cords. I believe in God. I connect to spirit. And then I pull that through my body. A few breaths like that, it calms my body down and I'm back to sleep. When you reframe those moments and shift your frustration to actual curiosity, that's when all the change happens. Your body's not working against you. It's just like working for you. You just have to, like, decode it. It's giving you feedback, clues you can create the conditions for real rest. So here's your reflection for the week. If sleep is your body's feedback, what is your body trying to teach you right now? Because, ladies, I believe everything is happening for us. Everything. Even the yucky stuff. The yucky stuff is here to show us or teach us something. So I have an experiment for you this week. Just like last week, choose one small boundary sleep boundary this week to help you improve your sleep. Maybe it's no TV in your bed or turning off the tv. Or if you have to fall asleep with it, maybe setting the timer so it goes off and it doesn't stay on. No phone. Maybe five minutes of journaling before lights out. Something like that. One of my practices is I have paper books, so I don't use, I don't use an iPad or anything to read because of the light. Maybe read a few pages of your favorite book before you go to bed. One that's not too stimulating. But oftentimes I'll read something I'm like, I, I'll say a little prayer and I hope to dream about this and have answers about it in the morning. So something to think about. I want you to notice after your little experiment this week, how do your mornings feel? Are you like ready to go? Do you feel energized and reset and restored? You might be surprised how fast your energy and your patience shift once your body starts trusting. Hey, I got this. It's okay to sleep. So a quick biofeedback recap of all this series. In series one, we explored biofeedback, learning how to listen to your body signals. Because like, what in the world does that even mean? Today we talked about sleep. I believe sleep is the first domino in the feedback loop. And when you sleep, everything gets easier. Your food decisions, exercise, your mood. All of it gets better when you are sleeping and you're balancing your hormones, which always is a benefit. In the next few episodes, we're going to talk about stress and energy. That's coming up next. And we'll also talk about digestion. And I want you to start thinking about digestion as not just what you eat, but how you eat, how you eat, and also what is your gut trying to tell you because there are a lot of things in midlife, like emotional things that are hard to digest. And I'm here to say that digestion is physical food, but it's also the all the emotional stuff in life. And then we'll finish the series up with movement and recovery because I love talking about those things. You'll know when your body needs to push and when it needs to pause. So if this episode hit home, I'd love for you to share your biggest aha in the comments. Tell me how your sleep experiment goes this week. Don't forget to check the show notes. I've linked some free resources including my supplement guide for midlife, which, yes, includes melatonin and my menopause minis. It's my 10 minute strength program that I'm in love with. It's helping women all over, get stronger, be more consistent and get over like, hey, I have time and energy for 10 minute workouts. When you start stacking small wins, your body's gonna start trusting you again. Okay, that's it for this week. I'll see you next time on the menopause Method.