Dr. Izabella Wentz

And if time goes on long enough, then they'll get on what I call the cortisol roller coaster,

Where they might start off with high cortisol in the morning.

So they kind of jump out of bed and they're ready to go.

But then they'll have a dip in cortisol levels maybe in the afternoon.

Sometimes that's irritability.

Sometimes that feels like anxiety.

Sometimes that feels like getting...

really hungry, or, you know, maybe they need to take a nap at 3 p.m.

And then as the day goes on, they'll have another spike of cortisol where they can't sleep at night.

They get to bed and they're like, oh, I have a million things to do.

Like, I need to do them.

As this goes on long enough, then they'll go into more of the more of the reversed cortisol curve where their total output of cortisol throughout the day will be lower than

And most of the cortisol will be low early in the morning.

So they'll have trouble waking up in the morning.

They'll be like a person that was an early bird and a early riser will say, holy cow, I just woke up at 930.

I like I used to wake up at 6am and go running.

What is going on with me?

And then throughout the day, they'll feel tired.

But finally in the evening, they will get that surge of energy where they'll be like, oh, well, I finally feel alive now and it's time to sleep, right?

And they'll have a hard time falling asleep.