5 steps to overcome menopause sleep issues

One of the most common problems that women seem to experience as they go through the menopause and beyond, is insufficient sleep. This lack of sleep can make coping with the other symptoms of the menopause, as well as all the other challenges of midlife, much more difficult.

In this blog I’ll outline some of the reasons why sleep gets impacted by the menopause and give some tips for things that you can do to improve your sleep.

I started to suffer with insomnia in my late 30s but put it down to life stresses and the fact that I’d never been a great sleeper.  As I continued to struggle with it through my early 40s, I had no idea that my sleep problems could be related to the perimenopause as it wasn’t something I’d even heard of then!

The reason sleep can be affected as we go through the menopause is because of the important role that oestrogen and progesterone play in supporting sleep.  As these hormones start to go out of balance and decrease through the menopause, sleep can start to become disrupted. 

Additionally, some of the other symptoms of menopause – night sweats, frequent urination, stress, and anxiety – can also disrupt sleep.

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) can help by balancing and replacing your hormones, impacting on your sleep directly, as well as indirectly by easing some of the other symptoms.  However, there are other steps that you can take to improve your sleep, whether you’re on HRT or not.

1.     Have good sleep habits

• Keep the time that you go to bed and the time that you get up consistent across the week. 

• Keep your bedroom cool and dark.

• Avoid bright lights in the evening.

• Get early morning daylight.

• Avoid caffeine later in the day.

• Limit daytime naps.

• Avoid (or limit) alcohol (it is a sedative.  Being sedated is not the same as being asleep and doesn’t have the same beneficial effects.)

• Have a wind-down routine in the evening and avoid screens later in the evening.

See my post ‘6 easy steps to better sleep’ for more on why these habits are important for good quality sleep.

2.    If you regularly find yourself lying in bed awake for more than 15 or 20 minutes, get up and do something else, otherwise you may start to associate being in bed with being awake, which will make it even harder to fall asleep in bed in the future (see my post ‘Sleep Habits for Better Sleep’ for more information).

3.    Manage your stress levels.  If you’re regularly feeling stressed throughout the day, you will probably find that your sleep is impacted too.  Taking action to manage your stress will support you to have a better night’s sleep.  It may also have a beneficial impact on other symptoms such as hot flushes.

4.    Practice meditation and/or techniques for deep relaxation (such as those I discussed in the post ‘Reduce stress and anxiety with deep relaxation’).  Developing the ability to calm the mind and body down will help you to get into a sleep-ready state, and to relax if you’ve been woken by night sweats or needing the toilet.

5.    Let go of the struggle for sleep.  When you’re exhausted and yet still can’t sleep, it can feel so frustrating.  However, sleep isn’t something that you can ‘do’ and so the more that you try to fall asleep, the more sleep can elude you.  Try to notice the thoughts that come up when you can’t sleep, the stories you tell yourself, e.g., ‘I’m so tired.  How am I going to cope tomorrow if I don’t get some sleep.’  Rather than latching onto the thought and allowing it to fuel your frustration, try to just notice it and let it go.   See the post ‘Ending the sleep struggle’ for more on how to do this.

For me, it has been a combination of all these things, plus hypnotherapy, that has helped me to sleep well night after night.

Sleep is so important to our health and wellbeing, affecting our cognitive functioning, immune systems, moods, heart health, and even our hunger drive.  You don’t need to accept that having a good night’s sleep is a thing of the past.  If you’d like help with your sleep so that you can feel more energised, focused, and able to cope with the other challenges of midlife, please click here to get in touch.