If you go look at the um athlete foundations or the athlete resilience protocols that put together , you're not going to see these things in there for that specific reason . Um Any form of cortisol regulation needs to be done strategically , if you are excessively high and we're bringing you back down the normative values at the right time , then great . If you're normal though , then taking you down lower than that is actually problematic .
Lots of lots of popular books there . Um I think that if people are trying to regulate their cortisol and they're just under and they just understand that basic contour that the baseline should be uh you know , rise pretty quickly after one rises in the morning . So it's easy to remember , rise , rise , um rise out of bed and rise cortisol with light , um bright light with exercise , um with caffeine , these things will all increase cortisol and then across the day , it's normal for cortisol to spike .
But then to really pay attention to how much psychological and physical stress is occurring in the six hours or so or eight hours prior to sleep . Um Does that seem like a , a good sort of broad contour of how to have a healthy pattern of cortisol release ? Because you actually want the cortisol to reduce inflammation and initiate or participate in the recovery process .
We have nutrients , we have energy again , specifically carbohydrates . Therefore , Cortisol can sort of go back down . We don't need to be liberating free fatty acids and preparing uh the need for fuel .
A lot of people , it helps you sleep . Um both get to sleep and stay asleep , sleep quality you talked about specifically , remember think about it this way cortisol at its core is an energy signaling molecule . It says we are in the need for energy .