Is Cortisol The Reason You Keep Waking Up At 3 A.M.?

Wellness

TikTokers are blaming high cortisol levels for their restlessness at night.

But sleep experts say its more complicated than you think.

But perhaps even more annoying is waking up for no apparent reason.

TikTokers, however, say theyve uncovered the culprit cortisol.

Turns out the TikTok wellness gurus may not be totally wrong.

Sleep health is multifactorial, and attributing one specific cause for either a problem or a benefit oversimplifies it.

What Exactly Does Cortisol Do?

Cortisol is your main stress hormone, but its reallya jack of all trades.

Meanwhile, the sleep-promoting hormone melatonin increases and decreases on the opposite schedule.

But stress can throw its circadian rhythm off its tracks.

This iscommon among people with insomnia, a sleep disorder thataffects nearly 30% of Americans.

The relationship between the HPA axis and sleep is bi-directional.

(Its likely a combination of both, experts agree.)

This is incredibly understudied, so we still have more questions than we do answers.

When and how much cortisol is released also depends on how long your body is under stress.

Most of us have really horrible sleep hygiene.

Social media kind of blows things out of proportion.

If we didnt have it, we wouldnt wake up in the morning.

But it needs to be in some level of balance, which social media really misses, Breus says.

People need to understand that there are things they can do to help manage that.