Is sleep decline just age—or something you can still change?
Hormone Decline ≠ Hormone Dysfunction
There is a thought that stops many of us from fixing our sleep. The “Elephant in the Room” of midlife health:
“I’m just getting older. My hormones are naturally declining. This is just how it is now.”
I want to challenge that today.
Hormone levels may decline with age, but decline does not have to mean impairment or dysfunction.
This is why some adults at 70+ still sleep well while others at 40 struggle.
Inside SleepOS Hormones, I examine and help you address ‘hormone disruptors’—the factors that impair hormone function and fragment sleep.
And, when we look at any single hormone through this lens, age is indeed a contributor.
It is, however, just one variable among many, and rarely the largest.
Take testosterone: We examine 15 categories of disruption factors in men and 15 in women—age is merely one of them. Across Estrogen, Progesterone, we also examine and address 10-15 disruption categories per hormone.
(And yes, every hormone has disruption factors for both men and women because normal physiology involves all hormones at different baselines.)
The vast majority of the other factors are modifiable—independent of age.
Here are a few examples of disruption factors that significantly impact hormone function but aren’t age-dependent (meaning they can occur at any age and be addressed at any age):
Testosterone
1. HPG (Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Gonadal) Signaling Disruptions
Testosterone production begins in the brain, not the testes.
The HPG axis is the instruction loop (GnRH → LH) that tells the body to produce testosterone.
Even when the testes are capable of producing testosterone, the instruction itself can be compromised — meaning production was never triggered.
Although aging is one factor that can influence HPG signaling, it is often disrupted for several addressable factors unrelated to age.
(The HPG axis also influences estrogen)
2. Low Free-Testosterone
SHBG (sex hormone–binding globulin) is the transport protein that carries testosterone through the bloodstream.
You may have heard the phrase “high SHBG lowers free Testosterone” — that is true, but lower SHBG is not better.
Low SHBG often reflects an internal environment where hormone signaling becomes less stable or more erratic.
Both high and low SHBG levels represent dysregulation: Low T weakens sleep stability, while high T can disrupt it.
This disruption can occur at any age — and can be addressed at any age.
(SHBG dynamics also impact estrogen.)
3. Excess Aromatization
Aromatase is a normal enzyme that converts testosterone into estrogen. This is part of natural and healthy physiology in men and women.
However, when the process of aromatization becomes dysregulated, this can create a “double pattern”: low testosterone support at night and rising estrogen-like activity at the same time.
Several modifiable, age-independent factors can cause excess aromatization (and it is not taking aromatase inhibitors).
Progesterone - Conversion Disruption
For progesterone to exert its calming effect, it must convert into allopregnanolone— a compound that stabilizes the brain’s GABA system.
This conversion depends on the 5-alpha-reductase enzyme.
When this conversion process is disrupted — progesterone cannot generate its sleep-stabilizing effect.
This affects both men and women, and can be disrupted for several addressable factors reasons unrelated to age
Estrogen- Poor Detoxification (MTHFR and/or Liver)
Once estrogen has performed its job, it must be packaged and cleared by the liver.
Some adults have genetic variants (COMT, MTHFR) and liver-processing bottlenecks that impair estrogen clearance. Others have gut microbiome disruptions that prevent elimination, allowing estrogen to recirculate.
This creates excess estrogen activity disruptive to normal sleep physiology.
Estrogen clearance issues can occur in both men and women at any age, and they can be addressed at any age.
So now you see, when we examine hormone disruption in midlife and beyond, age is not the most influential factor
—it is just the one that gets talked about the most. That has two implications.
First, if your sleep looks like this— waking between 2–4 a.m., hitting a hard 5–6-hour ceiling, and feeling more exhausted than you like—then “it’s just age” is almost always an incomplete explanation.
Second, it means there is still room to move the system.
SleepOS Hormones doesn’t divide people into ‘high T vs low T’ or ‘on HRT vs not’ or ‘in (peri) menopause or not’ and stop there.
It builds disruption profiles for testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone in midlife and beyond, then walks you through resolving the modifiable disruptors so your hormones can support sleep.
Why?
Having testosterone or estrogen in your blood stream (whether its from TRT/HRT or normal labs) is not the same as your body using them effectively
That’s why you can have normal labs or be on TRT/HRT and still wake at 3am.
Sleep OS: Hormones helps you support hormone levels plus how your body actually uses those hormones to support sleep.
So the question is not, “Can I get thirty-year-old hormones back?”
A better question is:
“What has been shaping my hormone function over the last 10–20 years—and which of those forces can still be changed over the next 60–120 days and set the stage for the next 10-20 years of optimal hormonal health & restorative sleep?”
That is what Sleep OS: Hormones is build to help you do. Inside the program, you’ll identify:
Where age sits on your specific susceptibility map
Which additional factors are most amplifying hormone-related sleep disruption in your case—and the specific steps to resolve them
How testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone each contribute differently to 3 a.m. wakeups and 5–6-hour ceilings
From there, the implementation sequences take those insights and turn them into a stepwise plan: how to support hormone production, handling, and clearance under real-world constraints, in an order that makes sense for someone who is not 25 and does not live a laboratory lifestyle.
If you have been assuming that your sleep is “just age,” and you suspect there is more going on under the surface, this is the step I invite you to take.
Age is part of the story.
But for the kind of person who reads this far—someone who takes ownership and wants to understand the system—it is a surprisingly small part.
What isn’t small is the cost of staying at a 5–6-hour ceiling. Long-term data shows adults averaging <6 hours most nights carry ~30–40% higher risk of cognitive decline and ~2x the rate of insulin resistance compared to those sleeping 7–8 hours. That gap compounds year over year.
The modifiable factors we discussed above are the actionable changes that can slow your aging—not just tonight, but over the next 10–20 years.
Warmly,
Kat
P.S. If your sleep has changed since midlife—lighter, shorter, or more fragile under stress—habits alone are not enough. The midlife hormonal transition often shifts how your body regulates sleep, but that function can be supported at any age.
The Sleep OS: Hormones was designed for this stage. It offers a self-paced, step-by-step process to strengthen hormonal pathways that stabilize sleep—without hormone therapy or lab testing.
👉 You can learn more about my most popular solution, the Trio Hormone, here (A 2x payment plan is available):
👉 Or, explore the foundational Sleep & Stress Single Hormone here:
If you are not sure whether Trio, Duo, or a single-hormone path (testosterone, estrogen or progesterone( makes the most sense:
👉 Find Which Sleep OS Hormones Path Fits Your Pattern Here →
