Your Nervous System: The Missing Link Between Stress, Sleep, and Hormones

Have you ever noticed how stress doesn’t just make you anxious — it affects everything? Your digestion, your hormones, your sleep, your mood.

In this solo episode of Healing Beyond the Symptoms, Dr. Leah Hahn, D.C. of Body in Balance Wellness Center in Golden, CO, unpacks the powerful role your autonomic nervous system plays in regulating your body’s most vital functions. She explains how chronic stress locks your system into survival mode — keeping cortisol high, slowing digestion, disrupting sleep cycles, and throwing hormones off balance.

She breaks down the science of the sympathetic (fight/flight) and parasympathetic (rest/digest) systems, helping listeners understand how modern life keeps us stuck in a loop of vigilance, fatigue, and hormonal chaos — and what it takes to reset.

You’ll also learn about the vagus nerve, your body’s master regulator of calm, and how to activate it through breath, movement, and gentle care.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• The difference between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems
• What “dorsal vagal shutdown” really means for digestion and mood
• How cortisol imbalance disrupts sleep and energy
• Why chronic stress causes hormone fluctuations and PMS
• Practical steps to regulate your nervous system naturally

Your symptoms aren’t random — they’re communication. When you support your nervous system, your body can finally return to balance.