Episode 51—Can Poor Sleep Cause an IBS Flare?
Welcome back to Healing Her IBS and we are returning today to our mini-series on IBS flares and what can cause them. In our previous episodes, we’ve explored stress and hormones as two very common triggers for a flare.
Today we will get deep into sleep- which is an often overlooked culprit.
If you have recently had an IBS flare and you’re not sure what caused it, enjoy today’s episode because this information gives you the power to understand your body more profoundly and will allow you to learn how to support yourself in the future.
Find the full transcript for this episode at healingheribs.com/51
How Could Sleep Be Connected to IBS?
Sleep is so overlooked as a contributing factor for IBS and honestly for health in general. When it comes to taking care of ourselves, you hear often that you should be eating well and exercising but there isn’t that much emphasis put on sleep.
Sleep can make or break your physical mental health and if you have had sleep disruptions, that can absolutely cuase your IBS to flare —even if it’s been a long time since you had any IBS symptoms at all.
Sleep is a nervous system regulator. Sleep is one of the most powerful calming inputs to your nervous system and when you’ve had a poor night’s sleep, your gut can become more reactive and sensitive.
This is not in your mind, so if you are having or have recently had an IBS flare, looking to your sleep quality is an important factor to consider.
Sleep is your gut and brain reset; it isn’t just your body resting. With my clients, looking to sleep is one of the top considerations and levers to beginning to heal IBS.
Please know as well that when it comes to sleep, it’s going to affect you and sometimes that good sleep is under your control and sometimes it’s not. At least not right away. If you have a baby or you work the night shift or you are suffering from insomnia currently, those are factors from “outside” that will affect your sleep.
The point of today’s episode is to explore how sleep can lead to an IBS flare and at the end I will talk with you about little things that you can to improve your sleep so that you can prevent IBS flares in the future.
IBS and Sleep-The Science
There’s a myriad of explanations that go into the science of sleep and how that can affect your gut symptoms the following day (or the following week). When you sleep poorly the stress hormones of adrenaline and cortisol can rise. You probably know that sometimes cortisiol and adrenaline are good for our bodies, but when it comes to sleep—those are not the hormones we want elevated.
Your gut hears cortisol like an alarm bell and can send this signal of danger through IBS symptoms like bloating, more urgency or cramping.
Poor sleep can also increase your gut’s visceral hypersensitivy which is basically just your gut’s sensitivy. One of the main ways that IBS is manifested is that for those with IBS, your gut is extra sensitive to the normal gut sensations that come from digestion, gas and hunger.
Not getting enough sleep or having bad quality sleep increases this pain sensitivy in general, and for those with a history of IBS, that includes that gut sensitivy. It’s not really that your gut is getting worse in anyway , it’s more that your nervous system is hearing all those signals louder.
Sleep disruptions can change the gut motility (or the speed of digestion) —this can speed things up in your gut leading to dairrhea or urgency or it can slow things down leading to pain, bloating or constipation. You may even be surprised to experience a new symptom of IBS that you haven’t had before because IBS is not one directional, and the same person can have constipation usually but then experience diarrhea depending on the stress and sleep issues they are experiencing.
Another important consideration is that if you struggle with poor sleep over a longer time period, this can have an effect on your gut’s microbiome. Chronic sleep problems are associated with less diversity in your microbiome and a higher tendency to have dysbiosis (a unhealthy ratio of gut microbiomes). It can also affect your gut lining and your gut’s ability to have a strong barrier that keeps out things that should be kept out.
The frustrating thing about IBS is how these issues of stress or in this case, sleep, can have a negative looping affect for those that suffer with IBS—as you probably know.
The thing (the lack of sleep, the stress-whatever it is) causes your gut symptoms and then you develop more stress and anxiety about those symptoms, and on and on it goes. This used to happen to me as well with my sleep. I knew how important my sleep was and I had insomnia often around 2am, worrying about the potential of having insomnia kept the loop going and it was tricky to get out of-but not impossible!!
Sleep Induced Flares-What To Do in the Short Term
If you are currently experiencing an IBS flare and you think it’s sleep caused there are things that are important for you to know that you can do right away to manage the flare and make it less stressful for you.
One of the hardest parts to deal with when you are having and IBS flare or intense symptoms can ironically be the thoughts and feelings that come with the event. If you are in acute pain, I advise you to:
- Manage your thoughts, don’t let your mind go to worst case scenarios if those aren’t called for.
- Remind yourself that you have IBS, this is uncomfortable but it’s not dangerous.
- Use this manta: my body is communicating something important to me.
- Try using a heating pad and doing a guided meditation
- Do a series of longer exhale breathing while you scan your body for how the entirety of it feels.
- Take small sips of water or tea.
- For the time being, keep your food simple and routine.
Sleep Induced Flares-What To Do in the Long Term
If you think know that your sleep is off and after listening to this podcast today, you are pretty certain that it is contributing negatively to your health and your IBS symtpoms, I strongly encourage you to make your sleep hygiene a top priority in your life to the highest extent possible.
We like to think of ourselves as “grown ups” and adults that know what we need and we know how to take care of ourselves, but then in reality we do not treat our delicate bodies with the care and structure it so desperately needs. Just because we grow up, doesn’t mean we don’t need a nighttime routine anymore.
As I like to say, IBS can teach you how to treat yourself like a precious baby, if you allow that.
I would encourage you to support your circadian rhythm in the following ways:
- Eat meals around the same time every day
- Go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time every day
- Make sure your bedroom is dim and cool at night
- Try to get morning light if you can first thing
Support your mental health around sleep issues by reminding yourself that if you don’t sleep well one night, it’s okay, it’s not an emergency.
Remind yourself that even if you are just resting at night calmly, that is still helpful for your body. Your body is resilient and you can absolutely recover from a few bad nights of sleep.
When my son was first born and for the first year of his life, my sleep was impacted in an other worldly way. I was exceedingly sleep deprived, which had to do with him not being a good sleeper and also the increased anxiety I had around sleep and being a new mother.
My IBS showed up shortly after that first year in a very intense way for me. There were many things which led me to developing IBS, but my poor sleep that year was certainly a big factor for me.
The positive side is that I didn’t need to stay stuck in that place. Eventually my son slept better and so did I. Eventually I was recovered enough to turn back towards myself and work on what I needed to do to heal and have the life I wanted to have, mostly IBS Free.
I know that you can have this too.
Before we say goodbye today, I would just like to add the caveat that if you have more serious issues with sleep, this podcast isn’t going to solve that! If you have severe panic at night, if you have longterm insomnia or loud snoring or gasping—that could be sleep apnea. If you have restless legs at night, see a doctor. If you are up at night sweating or suspect you might be experiencing hot flashes or sleep disturbances due to entering menopause, you should see a doctor about that as well and get help.
Often times we are taking care of our sleep hygiene and there are more serious and pressing issues that deserves attention and support.
Tonight I invite you to care for yourself in one small way as you get ready for bed. That could be reading in bed or having a warm cup of tea as you prepare for bed. I always love a warm electric blanket or heating pad on my belly. These small gestures compound over time —retraining your brain and your gut that you actually are safe and it’s okay to shift towards better health.