Especially for high-achieving women burning bright (and burning out).

You already know sleep matters.
But here’s what most people still don’t realise:
When you don’t sleep, it doesn’t just impact your health.
It disrupts and dictates nearly every system in your body.

🧠 Your focus? Fuzzy.
🛡️ Your immunity? Weakened.
🍽️ Your hunger cues? Out of whack.
⚡️ Your energy? Fluctuating.
😣 Your mood? Let’s not even go there.

Sleep isn’t a passive “wellness nice-to-have.”
It’s a biological power source and without it, everything becomes harder, slower, heavier.

But here’s the problem…

Women, particularly women in midlife are sleep-deprived and under-supported.
A recent article by Dr. Mary Claire Haver said it best:

“The girls aren’t sleeping.”

And the data backs her up:

📊 51.6% of menopausal women have sleep disorders
📊 40%+ of perimenopausal women report sleep problems
📊 79% report poor sleep quality during menopause
📊 Night sweats increase wakeups by 85%

With my Executive Coaching clients’ data from their wearables and conversations I have with them and with women after my speaking engagements? Those numbers feel conservative.

I coach high-performing women: founders, execs, change-makers. They know sleep is critical. They talk about it. They prioritise it. And still? They’re exhausted.

Why?

Because sleep becomes elusive, either due to biological changes or because they’re burning the midnight oil trying to “catch up.”

They’re managing businesses, raising families, juggling life and sleep is often the first thing they compromise. They let sleep slide. And there are dire consequences for their health and performance.
Been there. Done that.

And here’s the cascade no one warns you about…

When sleep becomes inconsistent or shallow, the domino effect is brutal:

1️⃣ Blood sugar spikes → increased cravings, poor metabolic control
2️⃣ Cortisol stays elevated → nervous system stays wired (I see this firsthand in my coaching clients’ sleep and stress data where there’s an inextricable link: high daytime stress often leads to a 2-4am wake-up and inability to fall back asleep)
3️⃣ Prefrontal cortex goes offline → impaired decision-making, focus and memory (everything feels mentally taxing, even making your coffee in the morning)
4️⃣ Immune function tanks → more inflammation, more sick days
5️⃣ Mood becomes volatile → your nervous system loses its buffer (so you snap over the most trivial things)

And if you’re a leader: your sleep impacts everyone around you.
This part doesn’t get talked about enough.
Research from WHOOP shows that even small amounts of sleep debt can significantly impair your cognitive function:

For every 45 minutes of sleep debt, you experience a 5–10% decrease in mental control the next day.
For every 30 minutes of slow wave (deep) sleep gained, you see a 5–10% increase in mental control.

That’s massive, especially if your role demands quick thinking, emotional regulation, strategic focus, or guiding a team.
And it doesn’t stop there.
According to WHOOP’s Podcast on Psychological Safety and Performance, leaders who are sleep-deprived are more likely to:

🔻 Be reactive instead of responsive
🔻 Create uncertainty in their teams
🔻 Miss subtle social cues
🔻 Reduce feelings of safety and trust in the workplace

Psychological safety isn’t built through strategy decks or slogans.
It’s built in every micro-interaction.
And when you’re tired? You’re more likely to misstep.

Sleep isn’t just self-care. It’s leadership hygiene.

This isn’t about sleep hygiene. It’s about sleep strategy.

Most women don’t need more rules.
They need realistic, biology-backed strategies that work in the real world (for women who are experiencing significant shifts in their hormones, as is often the case midlife).
I see this every day: high-achieving women white-knuckling their way through life on five hours of sleep and two oat lattes… and an evening wine (or two) to wind down (which further disrupts and derails sleep).
It’s not sustainable. And it’s not serving them.

Why tracking your sleep matters (and what to watch)

Here’s what actually moves the needle:

🕐 Consistency- Going to bed and waking at the same time each day (+/- 30 minutes is suggested)
🌙 Quality- Prioritising deep and REM sleep for repair and cognition
💤 Efficiency- Are you falling asleep quickly and staying asleep?
📉 Interruptions- Wakeups or long latency (time it takes you to fall asleep) = nervous system red flags

Wearables like WHOOP, Oura, or Apple Watch don’t just tell you how long you slept they show how well your brain and body recovered.

TL;DR?

Sleep doesn’t just affect your biology it commands it.
And if you want to lead, think, create, connect and perform at your highest level…

Start with sleep.
Protect it like your performance depends on it… because it does.
Look for solutions. Even if you’re a midlife woman who’s been told that your hormonal chaos is responsible for your poor sleep and there’s “nothing you can do.” That’s simply not true.

Want to explore this further?

To enquire about me speaking at your next event, where I share the neuroscience of cognitive load and practical strategies to help ambitious women reclaim focus, clarity and capacity reach out to Emma from Tier One: em**@*********om.au 📞 Or call: 0433 059 111.

Resources

1. National Sleep Foundation: Sleep in America Poll
2. The Journal of Women’s Health: Sleep and Menopause
3. PubMed: Menopause-related Sleep Disorders
4. North American Menopause Society (NAMS): Sleep Disturbances & Night Sweats
5. WHOOP x Forbes: “Want to Build a High-Performing Team? Start With Better Sleep”
6. WHOOP Podcast #131: “Stress, Sleep & Cognitive Functioning“
7. WHOOP Podcast #176: “Psychological Safety & Performance”