Does Sleep Affect Thyroid Function?

Sleep is one of the most important things to a healthy and alert mindset, and your thyroid health.  We want it, and we want it for our kids. However recent studies take the importance of sleep even further: sleeping less than 6 hours per night for one week affects our genetic expression by a magnitude of over 700 distinct changes. These changes include genes that govern stress hormones, our resilience to disease, the sleep-wake cycle, inflammation and aging processes. If you are actively managing Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, the very last thing you need is sleep deprivation sabotaging all of your hard work.

Researchers associate this evidence with why chronic sleep deprivation is linked with obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stress and depression. Not getting enough sleep promotes inflammation, further exacerbating Hashimoto’s.

Less than five hours of sleep per night is also linked with greater risk of death.

Early Mornings Sabotaging Our Youth

An increasing number of researchers are looking at early mornings as a source of adverse health effects. In fact, these even suggest adjusting school hours to start at [8:30], high school at 10 a.m., and university to begin at 11 a.m.

The reason for this is that later waking hours better suit our body’s natural cycle of sleeping. Forcing our youth to wake early is particularly detrimental, due to sleep being the primary phase of mental, physical and emotional development. This is not to mention the increased risk for significant events such as car accidents that occur with sleep-deprived teens.

From a study sample of over 900,000 global children, recent data found Americans as the most sleep-deprived.

If Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism runs in your family, ensuring your children get enough sleep is an important consideration to promote resistance to developing the disease.

The Working Day Should Begin at 10 a.m.

It isn’t just children and teens that naturally benefit from sleeping in. Research indicates that working adults in their 20s and 30s are not wired for the early start, and are better suited to starting the day later. The classic 9-to-5 routine is actually only really suited to children under 10 and adults over 55.

Out of all age groups, people within the range of 14-24 years are the most sleep deprived. This signifies an early disruption to key gene expression that increases the risk of various health complications.

Finding a job that starts later in the day may be an important step for your overall health, especially if you are a young adult managing Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.

Lessen Screen Time Before Bed

Although nature does play a part in our inclination toward later wake times, habits that promote late night stimulus can cause sleep deprivation. Exercising some control over when to switch off the screens and get some sleep is important when managing Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism.

Both adults and children tend to use smart phones and tablets well into the night, serving to keep us awake longer and over-expose our internal clocks to high levels of “artificial daylight”.

This is due to the blue light emitted by almost all devices acting as a source of pseudo-daylight.

Our natural release of melatonin (the sleep hormone) that occurs at night becomes suppressed, while stimulating adrenal and cortisol hormones. This is why we find it difficult to sleep in these situations.

Therefore, it is important to limit screen time and blue light exposure – however if this is not an option for you, wearing orange tinted glasses can limit blue wavelength light from entering your eyes and facilitate evening sleepiness.

A Swiss study described positive results regarding evening sleepiness and wearing orange tinted glasses, in a study sample of teenage males. Apps such as f.lux are also a good option, which reduce blue wavelength light emitted from your device in correspondence with the time of day.

These tips may be a good step toward managing your Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism protocol.

Overall, poor sleep results in a range of issues I’ve already mentioned above – however blood sugar imbalances, hormonal imbalances, brain-based issues and various others can also occur.

If you are struggling to to improve your health, or if you are tired of not feeling good despite going to numerous doctors, you may be a candidate for care in our office. If you are interested in getting help with your