When You Stop Taking Birth Control, This Is What Happens To Your Sleep – Health Digest

Birth control pills do more than influence changes in sex hormones — estrogen and progesterone — within your body. They also cause changes in body temperature. It is not uncommon to experience changes in your basal body temperature when you’re on birth control. In fact, being on hormonal birth control could cause temperature changes similar to what women experience after they ovulate (the luteal stage of the menstrual cycle) and this can cause insomnia. 

Additionally, being on the pill can mess with your sleep-wake cycle, per experts. OB/GYN, Dr. Jasmine Pedroso told Well+Good that synthetic hormones found in hormonal birth control pills can affect your existing estrogen and progesterone levels and mess with your body’s natural circadian clock. This might mean bad quality sleep, difficulty getting to sleep, or trouble staying asleep. So one could assume, that stopping the pill can lead to a better quality of sleep.

But like we said before, what happens to your sleep when you stop taking birth control can be a very individual experience, based on your existing hormone levels, your sleep hygiene habits, your mental health, and other lifestyle factors. That being said, if you’re on a hormonal birth control pill and you’re experiencing sleep troubles, should you stop taking them?