We’d be lying to ourselves if we said we’ve never had any issues with sleep. I think that’s a universal thing we can all agree on. 

There are so many different reasons why we may be getting less sleep. Maybe you have kids (that one’s pretty self explanatory!), a job that requires you to do more work outside the office, maybe it’s shift work - there are a million and one different reasons but they all lead back to one thing - lack of sleep.

While sleep doesn’t seem like an obvious area to address in order to manage your PCOS symptoms, it’s actually a pretty major player. Lack of sleep can lead to more than just feeling tired, it can have effects on so many different parts of our body

So how do we know how much sleep we need? How do we know if the quality of our sleep is up to par? What does it do to our PCOS? What can we do to get a better sleep? Can you have too much sleep?

Since we spend about a third of our lives sleeping, having answers to these kinds of questions is even more important.

So I’ve created this podcast to break down the research, answer these questions (and more) and give you some actionable steps to take to help mend your sleeping habits! 

With most countries in some degree of lockdown, we’ve never had a better time to focus on building quality sleep habits - so consider this your condensed guide to the perfect sleep!

This episode is for you if:

• Wake up exhausted
• Have trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep
• You want to know what effects sleep could be having on the rest of your body
• You want to improve your sleep
• You want to create a better sleep routine
• You tend to let work and other commitments eat into your sleep time
• You are insulin resistant, diabetic or pre-diabetic

Some things we cover in this episode:

• Stages of sleep
• Insulin and sleep
• Lack of sleep and its relation to diseases like diabetes, Alzheimers and cardiovascular disease
• How bad sleep deprivation and sleep debt actually is for you
• Sleep and metabolism
• The 4 pillars of sleep
• What you can do to improve your sleep habits
• Sleep routines
• Sleep Apnea
• Is too much sleep a bad thing?
• Are wearables useful for tracking your sleep?

References and Resources:

• Associations between sleep duration and sleep debt with insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion in the EGIR-RISC Study
• Physiological Correlates of Prolonged Sleep Deprivation in Rats
• Sleep Deprivation in the Rat: X. Integration and Discussion of the Findings
• Impact of Sleep and Sleep Loss on Neuroendocrine and Metabolic Function
• Impact of Sleep Debt on Metabolic and Endocrine Function
• Sleep Apnea and Daytime Sleepiness and Fatigue: Relation to Visceral Obesity, Insulin Resistance, and Hypercytokinemia 
• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is Associated with Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Daytime Sleepiness: Role of Insulin Resistance