Sleeping was always one of my super powers until I hit perimenopause - then I still slept but my deep sleep went down big time. Deep sleep is the part of sleep when the body repairs, when we’re refreshed and when our brain is cleansed of plaque. So I embarked on a mission to repair my deep sleep. It’s now gone up from around 6 minutes a night to around an hour. Some people lie awake for most of the night. Whatever your issue there is lots you can do to improve it.
Here I’ll share what worked for me - it’s a lot! My advice would be to try one thing at a time and give it as lease a week to see how it works for you. I use a device called an Oura ring (not sponsored!) which gives read outs of sleep quality and other things like heart rate, temperature etc. I found it really useful to track what worked and what didn’t. You can also feel it!
There is a theory that a lot of the symptoms of menopause are actually symptoms of lack of sleep. Symptoms of menopause can be split into four main categories;
Somatic symptoms, for example, gaining weight, headaches and insomnia;
Psychological symptoms, for example, irritability, depressive feelings and mood swings;
Vasomotor symptoms, for example, numbness and tingling, hot flashes and lack of appetite;
Urogenital, for example, loss of sexual interest and pain during intercourse.
Many of these symptoms are also symptoms of lack of sleep, for example irritability, depression and anxiety, weight gain and brain fog. These will seriously decrease your quality of life. But there’s also conditions that are more life threatening like heart disease and some cancers. Worth sorting out!!!
So, one theory is that it’s the hot flushes and night sweats that give us the insomnia - or at least make it worse - so if we can stop/reduce, it can go a long way.
Hot Flushes have been found to respond to diet - this was also my experience. For me the problems were sugar, dairy and alcohol. So work out your triggers and ruthlessly cut them out! Making sure you stay hydrated is another one - 8 glasses of water a day. Also managing your stress levels. Stress and anger are very heating, now is the time to detox triggers and stressors in your life. If you don’t your health will suffer. Up until now you’ve been able to “get away with it” because of the oestrogen acting as a anti-inflammatory amongst other things. Now you can’t get away with it anymore so you have to sort it out. This is a good thing! You have an inbuilt system to tell you when you’re choosing unhelpful options. Take it as a wake up call you finally get clean and healthy inside and out…
I also got a wool duvet that keeps you warm but lets heat dissipate away.
Temperature is also important. We evolved with cooler evenings stimulating responses in the body to get us to sleep. Having your bedroom too warm and stuffy can block sleep. 18 degrees is a good temperature to aim for.
Another thing that can block sleep is snoring and mouth breathing at night. It can cause dehydration and sleep apnea. It can also cause brain fog and daytime fatigue. One fix for this is mouth tape - using micropore tape to keep your mouth shut so you breath through your nose. You can also be sure to angle your face down and get bands to go round your chin to keep your mouth shut.
Light is very important for sleep. We evolved to respond to the light around us. Now we are over-dosed with blue light in the evenings which tell our systems it’s moving and time to wake up. I have an alarm at 8pm that goes off every night to remind me to put my screens away. It’s also good to switch from overhead lights to low level (the sun is closer to the horizon at night) and candles are a nice alternative. Also on light try to make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible - blackout blinds and curtains are a good way to go. It’s also good to go out in the morning to get a does of wake up morning light and go out at sunset to get the sleep signal from the warmer colours. It’s also a very nice ritual.
I use a herbal tea as part of my night time wind down ritual. The one I use is:
Yarrow- 1/2 tbsp
Motherwort - 1/4 tbsp
Skullcap tea - 1/4 tbsp
Passionflower - 1/4 tbsp
Stinging nettle - 1/2 tbsp
Add boiling water, brew for 5 minutes, drink last thing at night before sleep.
Caffeine is best avoided. But if you really want some have a morning cup and then switch to herbal. Tulsi tea with a spoon of Macca can give you a natural lift so can Greek mountain tea. And definitely avoid caffeine after mid day.
Sugar is best avoided. But definitely don’t have it late in the evening.
Alcohol is best avoided but again if you want some have it as early as possible to avoid going to bed with it still strong in your system.
Yoga is great to support sleep. An early morning energising wake up session and an evening chill out yin/restorative session is the bomb. Avoid strong activity in the evenings, it can heat up your system which evolved with cool evenings signalling sleep. Yoga Nidra can also really help get to sleep, and navigate the more shallow phases of sleep. I’ve also put together some acupressure points for sleep.
A regular sleeping routine is really important so your hormones can get into a rhythm. That means getting up and going to bed at the same time every night and morning. So even if a sleep in seems really tempting one morning or at the weekends, it’s really much better for your system to keep in the pattern. So I have an alarm set for bedtime and waking up time and if at all possible I stick to it. Consistency let’s your body function much better. This also includes meal times.
Serotonin is one of our “feel good” hormones, it’s also a precursor to Melatonin, this is the hormone that governs out sleep/wake cycle. Over 90& of our serotonin is in the gut - so if we have a poor diet or poor digestion due to stress that can affect our serotonin levels and indirectly our melatonin - another reason to sort out our diet and stress levels.
Here is some great advice from The Sleep Charity UK
I hope something here can help you.
Please don’t suffer with insomnia - there’s lots of support for you and lots you can do to help yourself.
Feel free to get in touch if you want any help or advice.