# Episode 194: Sleep Series Part 2: How Sleep Impacts Your Body Composition in Menopause?

An episode of [Becoming MindStrong](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1505918838), 2 Sep 2026, 10 min.

Audio: https://www.buzzsprout.com/977851/episodes/19720220-episode-194-sleep-series-part-2-how-sleep-impacts-your-body-composition-in-menopause.mp3

Sleep isn’t just about having more energy the next day. In menopause, it can impact much more than you realize. In Part 2, we’re diving into what happens under the surface when you’re not getting enough sleep, from disrupted hunger hormones and blood sugar to impaired muscle recovery, elevated cortisol, and the factors that can make body composition goals harder. If you're loving the podcast, leaving a review is the #1 way to help other women find it! You can do so by clicking the starts on the page where you're currently listening and (brownie points ;)) typing a few words about what you love. Thank you in advance <3 Check out my (free) workshop, How to Fire Up Your Metabolism in Menopause and Beyond right here: www.MindStrongFitness.com

## Transcript

Becoming MindStrong Episode 194 Sleep Series Part 2: How Sleep Impacts Your Body Composition in Menopause?
Speaker 1 0:00
We are in part two of our three-part series, why menopause wreaks havoc on our sleep, and we spoke a lot about estrogen, progesterone, blood sugar, and hot flashes. Today, in part two, we're going to talk about the why, meaning why is sleep so important? Right? We we know that it is. We talk around. We talk about it with the shoulds. I should get more sleep, right? But why is it such a capital M must, especially in this body over 40? So we're going to break today's conversation into five parts, so we understand every part of our body, of our being, of our life that's impacted by this thing called sleep. Those five parts are muscle recovery, hunger hormones, blood sugar regulation, cortisol, and body composition. Let's start with muscle recovery, and this one is a vital piece to the puzzle. If you are someone who works out, if you work out and you are not getting enough sleep, you are number one, running your body into the ground, and number two, it is going to result in injury because your muscles are not recovering. Because muscle recovery happens while we are sleeping. So when we're working out and we're creating those tiny tears in our muscle fibers, I have past episodes all about this. The recovery, the growing, the strengthening, the recuperating is happening in our sleep. This is where there's a surge in our growth hormone. So if you are bypassing that part, guess what's happening? Those little tears are never fully recovering. So when we get our booty back to the gym the next day, we're trying to push something that hasn't fully recovered, and of course we're going to wind up injured, which means we're putting all this work in, and not only we are we not going to see the results, but we're also going to wind up in a space where we have to take time off because we've gotten injured. Add to the fact that over 40, as our estrogen drops, we naturally lose muscle mass. This is why nutrition and progressive overload, pushing our muscles to do what they can't yet
Speaker 1 4:21
Our cells can use them for energy. That's a great thing. That's how our body naturally balances out our blood sugar. But as our body becomes more insulin resistant over 40, it's like the key gets rusty. It's trying to unlock our cells and say, "Hey, take this glucose to use as energy, but it can't get the key in the lock. We become more insulin resistant now. Just just to pile on a bit, but again, I promise there there's a light at the end of the tunnel coming in part three. If we are not sleeping properly, our body's insulin sensitivity goes down, meaning we become more insulin resistant. That's not a good. Because that means we're walking around with blood sugar, going on a roller coaster ride all day. We're carrying too much glucose in our bloodstream. It's very difficult to lose weight, and we run the risk of getting to a place where we actually become pre-diabetic. Hopefully, by now we are seeing that sleep is pretty important, right? For so many years, we tend to think sleep is just about energy, but now we understand it's vital for muscle recovery to keep our hunger hormones in check and to help regulate our blood sugar. Sleep is also a capital M must when it comes to here's the magic word again, regulating cortisol. We talk a lot about cortisol in this world because it is such a heavy hitter, over 40 as our estrogen drops, and if you've watched or listened here before, you can say it with me. One of estrogen's main roles in the body is to protect against cortisol. So over 40, if we are not consciously doing this work, we are naturally walking around with raised levels of cortisol. We all know stress is not great for us. It's one of the heaviest hitters in terms of our health, and you're not going to lose weight in the body with spiked cortisol. Add to that, when we are not sleeping, we are raising those cortisol levels higher and higher, which means our sleep gets worse. Right? It is a vicious cycle. The weight piles on because cortisol is a huge contributor
Speaker 1 8:27
Now, I want to wrap this episode up with a thought because I said this in part one, and it's important. If you've hung out here, you know that I hate the the word "should. We talk a lot in our world of there's no shoulding on yourself, S H O U L D I N G, and I'm bringing that up again because sleep is where so many people should on themselves. I know I should be sleeping, right? We've all done it where we're watching the clock and we're like, well, if I go to bed right now, I can still get seven hours. Well, if I go to bed right now, I can still get six hours and 15 minutes. I should go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep, and all that does is make the problem worse. Right now, we're just raising our cortisol more, stressing out about the fact we should be sleeping, but we're not actually sleeping. There are no shoulds here. Yes, it is true that sleeping more to would be to our benefit. We know that. What we need is the how. How do I actually do it? I know I should be doing it, Rachel. How do I actually do it? So we now understand what is going on with our body. Why does menopause wreak havoc on our sleep? We talked about that in part one. In part two today, we spoke about why. Why is it so vitally important? And in part three, coming up next, we are going to talk about exactly what to do about it. Because I promise, there's a light at the end of this tunnel. We can get our sleep back in check. Yes, even if it has been years of struggling with it, I'm going to show you exactly how. For more information on Mindstrong Fitness or to a. Apply for a free one-to-one strategy session with my incredible all-female team. Visit www.mindstrongfitness.com.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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