Sleep hacks every midlife woman should know – with Dr Sophie Bostock
Age Better with Liz Earle
Liz Earle
4.6 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2026
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Quality sleep may be one of the most overlooked tools that we have for healthy ageing. Sleep scientist Dr Sophie Bostock joins Liz to unpack how disrupted sleep in midlife impacts everything from mood and metabolism to cardiovascular wellbeing.
They discuss how perimenopause can interrupt a good night’s rest, the connection between sleep deprivation and blood sugar imbalance, and why catching up with a long lie-in at the weekend might do more harm than good.
Sophie explains how light exposure and regular movement can help your body prepare for rest. She also shares practical advice to help restore healthy circadian rhythms and get your shut-eye back on track.
In this episode:
· The link between poor sleep and cardiovascular disease
· What happens to the brain when you're asleep
· The importance of daylight to help you wind down
· Why poor sleep impacts insulin sensitivity
· Easy ways to support a good night’s rest
· Why long lie-ins don’t make up for a week of bad sleep
Links mentioned in the episode:
More from Sophie:
Get in touch with a question for Liz:
· Email: podcast@lizearlewellbeing.com
· WhatsApp: 07518 471 846
More from Liz:
· Order Liz's new book – How to Age
· Follow Liz Earle Wellbeing on Instagram
Host: Liz Earle
Producer: Anouszka Tate (Fresh Air Production)
Social Media Manager: Naomi van Geelen
Content Writer: Lucy Parley
Head of Brand: Ellie Smith
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Poor sleep or disrupted sleep is linked to an increased risk of 172 different diseases. |
| 0:07.8 | Every aspect of cognitive health, of physical health, of emotional well-being, there is no part |
| 0:15.4 | of our existence which is not supported by healthy sleep. I think the older you get, the less elastic your sleep system |
| 0:25.0 | becomes, you have to increasingly protect your sleep habits in order to have sufficiently good |
| 0:31.7 | quality sleep. Well, that is sleep scientist, Dr Sophie Bostock, and she says that sleep might just be the most powerful and most often overlooked tool that we have for healthy aging. |
| 0:45.4 | I'm Liz Earle. Welcome to Age Better. My mission is, of course, to change the conversation around aging. |
| 0:52.1 | Because what I've learned is that decline is not inevitable. |
| 0:56.5 | You know, when we understand what our bodies truly need, we really can age better. |
| 1:01.8 | Now, the go-getters saying suggests that you can sleep when you're dead, but what if good sleep |
| 1:07.1 | could actually add years to your life? I have to say, personally, I invest so much more time |
| 1:13.7 | now in my sleep. I prioritise it almost more than anything else in terms of living well, |
| 1:19.7 | and it's definitely gone right up my to-do list. Dr. Sophie Bostock is asleep scientist. Her PhD |
| 1:25.9 | investigated the links between stress and heart disease. |
| 1:30.1 | So that's something I'd really like to ask her about, as well as sleep's relationship with |
| 1:34.8 | cognitive decline, weight, interesting one, that one, mood and skin. So Sophie's worked with the |
| 1:42.1 | NHS, the Royal Marines, Google and elite athletes to translate the latest sleep science into real-life habit change. |
| 1:50.8 | Oh, and also, by the way, she's currently preparing to row, yeah, 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean later this year. |
| 1:57.5 | Well, I'm definitely going to have some questions about that too. |
| 2:04.7 | Sophie, welcome. What a pleasure to meet you. And it's incredibly clear from my introduction, |
| 2:10.4 | just how brilliantly hardworking a woman you are. And I guess we might assume that you must |
| 2:16.8 | optimise as many hours of the day as possible to go |
| 2:20.2 | after these amazing goals, but actually you prioritise sleep, don't you, in order to give you |
... |
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