Woman resting in bed wearing the Sweet Bee Deep Sleep Eye Mask in warm evening light

PMOS and Sleep: Why Your Body Clock Matters

Part 2 of 3: PMOS Awareness Month with Cara Shaw

For years, I thought feeling tired and anxious was simply part of having PCOS, now called PMOS.

I experienced daily anxiety, energy crashes and persistent fatigue, yet I thought this was normal. Nobody explained how closely sleep, blood sugar and hormonal health could be connected.

PMOS, sleep and anxiety

Research suggests that women with PMOS are more likely to experience difficulty falling or staying asleep, as well as sleep disorders such as sleep apnoea.

Women with PMOS are also more likely to experience symptoms of anxiety and depression.

What we don’t fully understand is the extent to which anxiety contributes to disturbed sleep, or whether poor sleep itself makes anxiety harder to manage. It is likely that the relationship works in both directions.

Why does sleep matter?

What we do know is that when we don’t get enough good quality sleep, our cells can become less responsive to insulin. This can lead to blood sugar highs and lows, leaving you feeling flat, fatigued, foggy headed and craving more sugar for energy, amongst many other symptoms. Problems with insulin can already be an issue for many with PMOS, and can be further exacerbated by poor sleep.

We also know that poor sleep can affect our other hormones like cortisol, which may lead to feeling less emotionally resilient and to feelings of anxiety.

It can even increase our appetite hormone ghrelin and decrease our satiety hormone leptin, leaving you feeling hungrier and less satisfied. This can in turn affect motivation to cook or move the following day.

It can become a difficult cycle: metabolic disruption may affect sleep, while repeatedly disrupted sleep may make blood sugar regulation harder, with a knock-on effect on mood, cognition and energy.

Circadian clocks

Circadian rhythms are the body’s internal clocks. They help coordinate processes such as sleep, hormone release, metabolism and immune function with the natural cycle of day and night.

Light is the strongest signal, but sleep, meal timing and activity also help keep these rhythms on track.

Irregular sleep and exposure to bright light late at night can confuse these signals and affect our blood sugar and how we feel energetically the next day.

Getting outside into natural light in the morning tells your brain that the day has begun, supports daytime alertness and helps your body know when to start preparing for sleep later that evening.

At night, we need the opposite signal. Lower lighting and less bright screen use help tell the brain that daytime is ending and allow melatonin, our sleep hormone, to rise naturally.

When our waking, sleeping and eating times change constantly, these signals can become less clear, leaving our clocks out of sync.

Where should you start?

Wake at roughly the same time each morning and get outside into natural light soon afterwards. This is one of the simplest ways to support your circadian clocks, and it helps tell your body that the day has begun.

In the evening, we want the opposite. Dimmer lighting, less stimulating screen use and a familiar wind-down routine, signalling rest.

My own routine is very simple: I make a hot drink, read in bed, massage Sweet Sleep into my skin and then put on my eye mask.

It’s less about chasing perfect sleep and more about giving your body consistent cues it can recognise.

References

This article is for general information only and is not a substitute for medical advice. If you have PMOS or are concerned about your sleep, speak to your doctor or a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your routine or supplements.

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