It doesn’t matter how many sheep I count, my dreams just won’t come true!

Lack of sleep can feel like torture, can't it? 

From grief, environmental stress, hormonal fluctuations, or a sleepless child, being interrupted from your zzz's can make the world feel distant and hard work.

Many of us who menstruate can deeply relate to that monthly bout of insomnia that can be found in our luteal phase. During the luteal phase, hormonal fluctuations, particularly changes in progesterone levels, can affect sleep patterns. These hormonal changes can contribute to sleep quality and duration disruptions, making it harder to fall and stay asleep.

Let's be honest, you don't give two sticks which hormone is creating this havoc! All you want is for your brain to switch off and for you to fall deeply into relaxing, restorative sleep so you can get your shit done the next day.

But what if there was a greater reason for this insomnia? What if this insomnia was part of the feminine art of processing that could lift mental health and limiting beliefs?

I've just started reading Sleepless; discovering the Power of the Night Self by Annabel Abbs. AND SHE'S BLOWING MY MIND!

Going through her grief and insomnia she's called to put down the sleep aids and medication and face this full-on. And with that the deep grief and all of life she was trying to bypass. She brings up some interesting facts on sleep, circadian rhythms, and how women suffer most from lost sleep. One of the most interesting accounts is from the historian A. Roger Ekirch and his discovery of biphasic sleep (sleeping in two segments, separated by an awake period of one and three hours). Ekirch found that this wake time was divulged through prayer, meditation and spiritual contemplation. For our ancestors, this was a time that offered a bridge to a spiritual/transcendent dimension.

Is that call to wake early really as bad as what we make out it to be? Or is it society’s expectations taking more of our magick?

I find the Luteal phase (Inner Autumn) an incredibly spiritual opportunity for insight, completion, discernment, losing it, and meeting my inner critic (education found from The Red School). But how do you find the space and time for this incredibly potent aspect of seasonality in a world that doesn't value female health (or any health for that matter)?

Synaptic saturation is where your brain fills up during the day and requires nightly pruning to create space for the following day's learning. What if this is a luteal phase evolution? To prune and make space for the next cycle, we are called into our most creative, emotionally free, reflective nights to make sense of it all.

Doesn't this make more sense and make you feel a bit better about those times in our cycle?

To read my full article, check out my community We Are Project Woman here. In this space, I offer great insight, conversation, support and resources around female health that make you feel wonderful in your womanly skin.

Big love

Abi x

Do you feel pulled to know more? Click here to book a chat. Or why not join me on We Are Project Woman where I guide women into making menstrual cycle syncing an easy art of life? Click here to go to the Project Woman Collective.