# @ciarafoyinc on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DYyAX7-ipwO
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66060674-ciarafoyinc-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/20232ef951.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-05-26T00:14:02.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Ciara Foy // Nutritionist • Hormone Expert • 20 Yrs (@ciarafoyinc) — https://gondola.cc/ciarafoyinc

## Caption

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 to shift a bedtime, verified deficiency or for jet lag. Magnesium bisglycinate runs the GABA pathway and lowers cortisol. L-theanine raises alpha brain waves and dampens the stress response in 30 minutes.

3.	Screens off by 8:30. Blue light suppresses melatonin for over 2 hours, keeping cortisol elevated. 
	
4.	Stressed >Hot Epsom salt bath 90 minutes before bed. Counterintuitive, but it’s the fastest way to drop core temp. Heat triggers vasodilation, then your core cools rapidly. Haghayegh 2019: cuts sleep onset by 36%.

5.	Blood sugar managed all day can significantly reduce hot flashes. Thurston 2012, 3,000+ women, 8 years: hot flashes tied directly to higher blood sugar and insulin resistance, independent of weight or estrogen.

This is the Hormone Stacking Method.

Works whether you’re on HRT, considering HRT, or doing this through food alone.

If you’ve been told this is just what perimenopause feels like (wired at night, awake at 3am, exhausted in the morning), I want you in this masterclass. 

Comment METHOD and I’ll send the live link. May 29th . Free.

Follow so the link reaches your DMs.

#perimenopause #cortisol #hormonehealth #sleep #bloodsugar

## Stats

- **Views:** 1,134
- **Likes:** 42
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- **Comments:** 8

## Tags

sleep, hormonehealth, cortisol, bloodsugar, perimenopause

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