During deep sleep, your pituitary releases the GnRH pulses that regulate the whole cycle. Consistently sleeping less than 7 hours a night disrupts that pattern, and women who sleep less than 6 hours have a higher incidence of irregular cycles, short luteal phase and difficulty conceiving.
Sleep is the start of an invisible chain: bad sleep raises cortisol, high cortisol suppresses reproductive hormones, and suppressed hormones cause dysregulated cycles. Many TTC women ignore it because "there's nothing you can do about it". There is, and it makes a measurable difference.
| Sleep pattern | What the book reports |
|---|---|
| Less than 7 hours a night, consistently | Disrupts the GnRH pattern that regulates the cycle |
| Less than 6 hours a night | Higher incidence of irregular cycles, short luteal phase and difficulty conceiving |
| Night shifts and chronic sleep deprivation | Pregnancy rates reduced by up to 33% in a Danish study of 17,000 nurses |
Sleep also affects how you read your body. If you chart basal temperature, a night of less than 5 hours gives an unreliable reading, and night shifts or an irregular sleep cycle make the method unworkable.
The book's 90-day plan asks you to set a regular sleep schedule of 7 to 9 hours a night in the very first month, and to keep it in practice until the end.
Testosterone is produced during deep sleep, and sleep deprivation lowers it by up to 15%. That is why "sleep well" is one of the 10 habits the book lists for male fertility. Poor sleep also appears on the book's list of habits that affect the sperm production still to come: sperm is produced in cycles of roughly 72 to 90 days, so today's sperm reflects his habits over the last three months.
Sleep is the first half of Chapter 23 of Map to the Positive, in Station III (Optimization). The second half of that chapter covers cortisol: the physical signs that it is chronically high and the strategies with evidence to lower it. Station III also covers nutrition, supplements, exercise, his fertility and sex at the right time, and ends with an integrated 90-day plan.
Take 30 days. If it does not give you more clarity than everything you have read for free so far, ask for a refund and you get every cent back. We cannot promise you a pregnancy. We can promise you will not be guessing.
References: Stocker LJ et al. Sleep and infertility. Reproductive Sciences, 2014.