A Woman's Guide to Sleep, Patterns, Cycles

We all know sleep is very important, but for women, getting a full night's rest everyday of the month may seem dang near impossible. Our hormones fluctuate every week for four weeks, our energy levels change, right down to what we want to eat and crave and how that affects us. Here is a little breakdown of what happens during the month for our changing sleep patterns and how movement can help during each stage.

1) Menstruation

This is where all the butterflies and rainbows come together for your sleep. It takes little time for us to fall asleep, we feel drowsy, and most importantly, we can GET tired doing our daily routines. You have enough energy to workout, stretch, move, and do all of your daily chores. This is the best time for sleep out of the entire month. Your hormones level off to where neither progesterone or estrogen is higher than the other. Your mood stabilizes because of this as well and that all flows into your sleep.

2) Follicular

This one is a little trickier because it can go either two ways, depending on the woman. Either you have a normal long follicular phase and that sets up your body for ovulation and getting ready for a baby, so maybe you feel a little more energy than normal. Or the other side is your hormones change too fast too dramatically causing you to feel very anxious, excited, paranoid, and can't sit still. Depending on your normal personality this plays a role in how you will feel. So let's say you already know you have anxiety/mood issues, this time is not your friend. All of those feeling will come out in full force.

What does this have to do with sleep? Well, it means good luck. The first group of women may not have a problem sleeping that bad, but the second will try and run through their anxious lists in their head all night, their brains can't turn off. This part is where you might want to reach for some melatonin or magnesium.

3)Ovulation

Think of ovulation as the follicular phase just longer, for an entire week. Once your body gears up for a baby, now it's time to flood you with hormones to make a baby (and I'm not talking about the sexy time hormones here lol). I'm talking about endless amounts of energy, never feeling tired, you feel like you could accomplish the whole world if you wanted too with energy to spare for other things. There is also a thing called period insomnia, and it happens in either this phase or the next in the luteal phase. Some women for the life of them cannot sleep during this phase, will only get like five hours of sleep, but will be fully functioning the next day due to the good old batch of hormones coursing through them.

Here the advice is to know your body. Are the woman who can handle this amount of energy and use it wisely and productively? Or are you the type to stay up all night due to insomnia? If you are, reach for the magnesium and melatonin again during this whole week.

3) Luteal

Remember what I just said about reaching for supplements to help you sleep? Well, you can put them away now. Welcome to the luteal phase, the "I am not going to get anything done because I am so tired" phase. I can't tell you how many times I have said to my husband " I'm useless this week" during this time, he even marks it on his calendar. All the surge and rush of boundless energy hormones from the week before coming to a screeching halt at this time. Estrogen goes away and progesterone takes over for a week, and sometimes up to ten days. Progesterone is known as the sleep and rest hormone. Almost like nesting for ten days, if you were pregnant, same vibes here. Curl up with a blanket and some Netflix and binge watch that show you've been waiting for.

Now because you feel tired all of the time here does not mean you get better sleep. This is the time where you might wake up groggy, even after eight or even nine hours of sleep. You can't seem to get enough, but you also don't feel awake enough even after the proper amount of sleep. Here is the time to make sure you have good sleep hygiene, a dark bedroom, no phone two hours before bed, and maybe some relaxation or meditation before bed during this time.

Then we repeat this all over again for the next month. Women should be aware of the changes in their sleep during the month. Not because it is good to know but how to harness each week of your cycle and how much sleep you are getting and how much energy you feel you have. Use this knowledge to your advantage and how you plan your work or lifestyle around this. For a better and all-around smoother month and life.