As a functional nutritionist with 20+ years specializing in women’s hormones, this is the most misunderstood thing about perimenopause and sleep. Yes, low estrogen and progesterone make sleep harder. They matter. But they’re not the hormones you can control night to night, and they’re not the ones running the show. The hormones that actually control your sleep are upstream. Cortisol. Insulin. Blood sugar. These you CAN control, and when you do, your sleep changes even while your sex hormones swing. I’m 49. My cortisol crashes by 9pm and I’m asleep by 10:00 without trying. Not because my estrogen is perfect. Because I run the upstream system every evening. Wired at 10pm. Awake at 3am. Heart racing. That’s cortisol, and it’s fixable. 5 controversial things I do every evening: 1. Last meal before 7pm. Late eating spikes cortisol overnight and blocks melatonin (PMC9889728). 2. I don’t take melatonin. I take magnesium bisglycinate and L-theanine. Melatonin is a hormone. I only use it...