Sleep

[Anonymous]

I keep waking up through the night after no problem falling asleep. Late 40s. What are people doing/taking to ensure a good night's sleep? Routines that work for you? I'm starting to feel uneasy at nighttime knowing I'll likely have trouble.

[Anonymous]

You should really talk to your PCP about this. Not getting enough sleep is detrimental to your body.

Personally, that has never been an issue for me. Are you sure you are getting enough daily exercise and steps in? How is your stress management? Do you take time to meditate? Dialing alcohol/sugar/processed foods way back? Getting enough sunshine (take off the sunglasses) during the day? Taking a vitamin D supplement? How is your sleep hygiene? We always start turning lights off/dimming during dinner and lighting candles. More romantic too.

[Anonymous]

Agreed a good sleep routine is important and sleep hygiene. Magnesium and vitamin D may also help.

As for feeling uneasy at bedtime, I have sort of just built it into my schedule, not sure if it’s possible for you. I’m early 50s and I work mostly remote from home. I have no problem falling asleep and I go to bed early but most nights I will wake up in the middle of the night - sometimes I go down and sleep on the sofa or the guest room just for a change of scenery and that helps but I try to just lay there and relax, and I’ve gotten much better about not ruminating or thinking stressful thoughts. Some nights I’m up for a long time but most nights I’m able to fall back to sleep and then sometimes I can take a 15 or 20 minute cat nap during the day - so overall I track my sleep on my ring and I’m still getting enough sleep.

I guess if you can try not to ruminate on it except that it is part of midlife and it might get better once you’re in full menopause it takes the stress out of it.

But if you’re not willing to do that, some people have found hormone therapy is helpful. I would not recommend sleep medications. There’s more and more research coming out that they don’t actually help you get a restful night sleep.

[Anonymous]

Sleep has been the biggest challenge of menopause. It was horrific at 50 and I took THC for a while, then went on HRT. HRT helped a great deal, since hot flashes were a part of the problem. I’m now 53 and sleep is slowly getting worse again. I fall asleep okay but wake up 2-5 times a night, usually do just a little while. It’s enough to make me tired, though.

I wish I had an easy answer. For me it isn’t diet or exercise.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all these helpful responses.

[Anonymous]

I do melatonin and I started also doing magnesium before bed. Maybe it helps? What also helps: avoiding alcohol, limiting caffeine, turning off devices an hour before bed and just reading. I have discovered that using a heating pad on my neck makes me sleepy, but sometimes also triggers hot flashes.

[Anonymous]

I take magnesium before bed (also helps with leg cramps/restless leg) and vitamin D. HRT also made a big difference; I have the patch and take the progesterone at night.

[Anonymous]

This was a huge problem for me. Could fall asleep, but couldn’t stay asleep more than 4-5 hours and was absolutely wired at 3-4am. I was exhausted all day and had terrible brain fog. It was a horrible way to live. My diet, exercise were great. I even meditated and had a great sleep routine.

Here is what I did.

Accept that you cannot both drink alcohol and sleep on the same night. Same if you have caffeine after the morning.

HRT helped a lot, but not at the beginning, it took time and a relatively high patch level.

Magnesium at night (with progesterone). L-theanine (supplement) also seems to help me (take at bedtime).

A bedtime snack high in fat/protein helps me, but I am not much of a dinner person. Just make sure you have decent fat/protein either at dinner or later.

When/if you do wake up wired or with racing thoughts, have a plan. Accept that it’s not real, just hormonal.

My sleep is still not awesome, but so much better than it was.

[Anonymous]

I rarely sleep longer than 2-3 hours without waking and usually wake up 5 to 12 times per night. I follow all the recommended lifestyle changes with no difference. I'm doomed to develop dementia due to poor sleep.

[Anonymous]

Calm magnesium powder, but it helps more if I don't take it every night.

[Anonymous]

I ended up having to get a CPAP - turns out I had severe sleep apnea. It hasn’t been long but I’ve already slept through the night a few times for the first time in many years.

[Anonymous]

HRT has transformed my sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agreed a good sleep routine is important and sleep hygiene. Magnesium and vitamin D may also help.

As for feeling uneasy at bedtime, I have sort of just built it into my schedule, not sure if it’s possible for you. I’m early 50s and I work mostly remote from home. I have no problem falling asleep and I go to bed early but most nights I will wake up in the middle of the night - sometimes I go down and sleep on the sofa or the guest room just for a change of scenery and that helps but I try to just lay there and relax, and I’ve gotten much better about not ruminating or thinking stressful thoughts. Some nights I’m up for a long time but most nights I’m able to fall back to sleep and then sometimes I can take a 15 or 20 minute cat nap during the day - so overall I track my sleep on my ring and I’m still getting enough sleep.

I guess if you can try not to ruminate on it except that it is part of midlife and it might get better once you’re in full menopause it takes the stress out of it.

But if you’re not willing to do that, some people have found hormone therapy is helpful. I would not recommend sleep medications. There’s more and more research coming out that they don’t actually help you get a restful night sleep.

Along those same lines, I read somewhere (maybe even DCUM!) that 'rest is still rest,' so even if I was laying in bed with my eyes closed, it was better than getting up and moving around. That took some of the pressure off and I leaned into the idea that I was still 'resting' at 3:00 am even if I wasn't sleeping.

[Anonymous]

Came on here to ask the same thing. I’ve been up since 2am. My sleep was great up u til a month ago. Now it’s awful. I don’t drink, I work out and eat great. I feel like I’m going to go crazy soon if I don’t get a good night sleep. It’s awful. I ended up crying tonight because I’m at my wits end. I don’t have hot flashes but I am hot depute having a fan blow directly on me. I want to try HRT but I’m worried at this point that nothing will help. I also read before bed and avoid screens (I’m only on here after four hours of lying awake).

[Anonymous]

Sleep disruption is my worst peri symptom and it is horrible right before period. I got on hormonal bc and it helped a lot. I have to add half a unisom the week before period. As soon as it starts I can drop the unisom.

It is entirely hormonal in my case. One night went to bed before 9pm and could not fall asleep until 5am. It was horrible and no explanation until period arrived that same morning. Hasn’t been that bad since I started hormonal bc, now I wake up around 2am pms week without the unisom.

Never had this until peri.