Sleep is crucial for restoring the body from the day’s activities. The older you get, the less sleep you are likely to get at night. Lack of sleep results in fatigue, often due to a decline in essential growth hormone production.
The use of HGH therapy for sleep disorders in adults can often help improve sleep duration and quality of life.
Before we delve into why you need HGH for better sleep, it might help to understand the 4 stages of sleep – also called the sleep cycle:
- Stage 1: The lightest stage of non-rem sleep accompanies slow eye movements and a drowsy state. A person can wake easily during this time when brain wave activity begins to slow, and muscle tone starts to relax. Muscle spasms or hypnic jerks may occur while a person is drifting in and out of this lightest stage of sleep.
- Stage 2: During this first actual non-rem sleep stage, slow-moving eye rolls cease, and it becomes harder to wake at this time. Body temperature decreases while brain waves and heart rate slow. The brain uses this time to begin memory consolidation and synaptic pruning.
- Stage 3: Deep non-rem or slow-wave sleep is the time most of the restoration processes in the body occur. Delta waves with their slow speed and large amplitude are less likely to be affected by external noises and stimuli. During this phase, the pituitary gland releases human growth hormone into the bloodstream to repair muscles and tissues, process and store memories and the day’s activities, and support immune and metabolic functions. Stage 3 allows the brain to clear itself for the coming day’s learning.
- Stage 4: The final stage in the sleep cycle is known as REM sleep or rapid eye movement. It gets its name from the rapid eye movements that occur while the brain waves are more active than in the previous two stages. It is easier to awake during this stage, although it can leave a person feeling groggy. Vivid dreams also occur most often during REM sleep.
As we look at the sleep cycles and the use of HGH therapy for sleep disorders, we examine how most people will cycle through these stages four to five times per night. The initial sleep cycle is often the shortest (around 90 minutes), with the largest burst of growth hormone coming from the pituitary gland during the first stage 3 period. Each subsequent cycle lasts about 100 to 120 minutes, with shorter stage 3 periods. Stage 3 is also the shortest part of each sleep cycle.
When a person does not get at least 7 hours of sleep each night, they experience fewer sleep cycles. Each loss of stage 3 non-rem sleep causes a reduction in growth hormone production.
Fewer than 7 hours of sleep can result in the need for HGH therapy for sleep disorders because reduced sleep cycles decrease growth hormone release.
What Does Growth Hormone Have to Do With Sleep?
Growth hormone has everything to do with sleep. The reason we spend so much time talking about HGH therapy for sleep disorders is that people who are growth hormone deficient rarely get enough sleep.
Why does growth hormone deficiency (GHD) interfere with sleep?
Growth hormone is a regulatory hormone – it supports many critical functions in the body, including:
- Metabolism
- Cell Regeneration
- Immunity
- Brain Functions
- Hormone Secretion (insulin growth factor 1 and testosterone)
- Libido
- Temperature Regulation
In addition to helping stimulate the production of testosterone and IGF-1, growth hormone also opposes the actions of cortisol. Along with testosterone, HGH helps keep cortisol levels from rising too high, which can inhibit the body’s ability to fall asleep at night. Elevated cortisol levels, often the result of ongoing stress, causes testosterone and growth hormone production to decline. Inability to fall asleep results in reduced sleep duration and fewer sleep cycles – meaning decreased stage 3 sleep and HGH secretion.
When we talk about using HGH for sleep, it is part of a whole-body treatment protocol that improves the symptoms of growth hormone deficiency in adults.
Growth hormone helps keep cortisol levels low so that they do not interfere with sleep and critical hormone production.
Why Does Sleep Affect HGH Production?
One of the problems we find with growth hormone deficiency is that adults with this condition tend to fall asleep later at night. Higher cortisol levels associated with GHD pushes sleep further into the evening – often past the time when the natural circadian rhythm desires sleep. In studies where altered sleep cycles have been tested, individuals who do not adhere to their normal circadian schedule tend to have shorter slow-wave sleep and sooner REM sleep. The result is reduced growth hormone release at night when most of the day’s supply of GH enters the bloodstream.
The pituitary gland begins to decrease growth hormone production while most people are still in their twenties. Lifestyle habits can increase or reduce the speed at which GH secretion slows. Lack of sleep, a sedentary lifestyle (little or no exercise), poor dietary choices, weight gain, and elevated stress levels can increase GH decline.
The need for HGH therapy for sleep disorders occurs because reduced growth hormone levels cause the body to compensate by releasing other hormones that can help produce energy. Again, we speak about cortisol, which opposes GH but promotes the release of the hunger hormone ghrelin which tells the body to eat more for increased energy.
Overeating to force more energy into the body results in weight gain, which lowers growth hormone levels. Cortisol increases, further interfering with sleep. The use of HGH for sleep disorders is crucial to help lower cortisol and improve sleep quality.
Sleep is the time when the majority of the daily supply of growth hormone enters the bloodstream.
How Does HGH Therapy Improve Sleep?
Among the leading HGH sleep benefits that we find is that adults begin to see an improvement in their sleep duration within a few weeks of starting treatment for GHD. As soon as HGH enters the bloodstream, it begins to oppose cortisol levels, forcing them lower. The decrease in cortisol reduces the feeling of alertness later in the evening.
As a result of the use of HGH therapy for sleep disorders when treating adult growth hormone deficiency, a person begins to feel tired and drowsy at night, instead of stressed and wide awake. They can fall asleep sooner, faster, and sleep more soundly, entering stage 3 non-rem sleep earlier in their circadian cycle. As a result, the body utilizes HGH more efficiently, resulting in better sleep.
HGH therapy helps to reduce cortisol levels and facilitate earlier and deeper sleep.
A Final Word on Sleep and HGH
Growth hormone deficiency often causes adults to have less total sleep time and more sleep fragmentation. Following stage 3 release of growth hormone into the bloodstream, the brain can use the GH to assist with the storage of the day’s activities. With fewer and shorter periods of REM sleep, memory problems may occur.
To improve HGH sleep quality, it is vital to contact a hormone specialist to measure your growth hormone levels. Adult GHD can lead to many symptoms, as well as increasing the risk of:
- cardiovascular disease
- type 2 diabetes
- atherosclerosis
- obesity
- dementia
- osteoporosis
These are only some of the health risks that are frequently seen with low growth hormone levels. To learn more about HGH therapy for sleep disorders, or to find out if you are growth hormone deficient, please contact RX Hormone medical clinic for a free consultation.