How to Lower Stress Hormones So You Can Actually Fall Asleep
You can do everything else right—eat clean, train smart, supplement intelligently—but if your stress hormones are too high when your head hits the pillow, you’re still going to struggle to sleep.
Here’s why.
Stress Hormones and Sleep Don’t Mix
Cortisol, the body’s primary stress hormone, is incredibly useful when you need to perform under pressure. It gives you energy, keeps you focused, and helps you rise to the occasion. It’s part of your survival mechanism—and it’s damn good at its job.
But it has no business showing up when you’re trying to sleep.
If your cortisol is high at night, your brain can’t do what it needs to do to ease you into deep, restorative sleep. You might fall asleep, but chances are you’ll toss and turn, wake up groggy, or stare at the ceiling for an hour at 2 a.m.
The Problem: You Can’t Just “Turn Off” Cortisol
Here’s the kicker—there isn’t a drug that can safely drop your stress hormones on demand. Believe me, if there were, it’d be the most effective sleep aid in the world. But we’re not there yet.
So instead of scrambling to lower cortisol right before bed, the smarter strategy is this:
Keep stress hormones low throughout the day.
Because if your stress hormones are elevated all day long, they’re not magically going to disappear the moment you decide it’s bedtime.
How High Performers Manage Their Stress
Think about the people under the most pressure—Navy SEALs, astronauts, professional athletes. They’re trained to stay calm in the most intense situations imaginable. And they don’t get there by chance.
They use tools like:
- Breath work
- Visualization
- Mindfulness
- Cognitive tools to anchor them in the present
These aren’t just trendy wellness habits. They’re proven strategies to lower stress hormones.
Try This: Box Breathing
One of the simplest, most effective tools I used with SEALs is something called box breathing. It’s dead simple:
- Breathe in for 4 seconds
- Hold for 4 seconds
- Exhale for 4 seconds
- Hold for 4 seconds
- Repeat for at least 2 minutes
Do that, and you can reduce your stress hormones by 10–30% in just a couple of minutes.
You don’t need fancy gadgets. You don’t need a prescription. Just your lungs and two minutes.
Anchor Yourself in the Now
Another big lever for reducing cortisol is presence. Whatever helps you focus on the present moment—meditation, prayer, journaling, even a walk outside without your phone—is helping to lower your stress response.
Your brain can’t be anxious about the future if it’s grounded in the now.
Sleep is Where Recovery Happens
At night, you want the exact opposite of a stress response. You want high anabolic hormones like growth hormone and testosterone, and you want cortisol to hit the floor.
That’s when your body repairs tissues, balances hormones, and restores your brain and nervous system.
But here’s the secret:
If you want to sleep well at night, you have to manage your stress during the day.
Don’t wait until bedtime to think about sleep.
Think about it all day long.
Tools That Can Help
Along with stress-lowering practices like box breathing, visualization, and mindfulness, some people need extra support—especially if their brain’s been trained for high alert all the time.
That’s why I created Sleep Remedy. It’s a blend of nutrients that support your body’s natural sleep chemistry—no Ambien, no melatonin overload, no morning grogginess. Just the raw materials your brain needs to transition into deep, restorative sleep.
Because if you’ve been living in fight-or-flight mode for years, it takes more than willpower to undo that.
Your Sleep Is a Mirror of Your Day
High stress during the day = poor sleep at night.
And poor sleep leads to even more stress the next day.
Break the cycle by doing what the best performers in the world do:
Manage your stress early, and often.
You’ll sleep better.
You’ll recover faster.
And you’ll perform at a whole different level.
Sleep Remedy
CAPSULES
Doc Parsley’s Sleep Remedy is a natural sleep aid, formulated with a blend of calming nutrients to help you fall asleep faster and improve your sleep quality. Doctor-developed and recommended, it’s non-habit forming and safe for daily use.