Menopause & Sleep Problems

Unfortunately for women, hormones levels can significantly affect sleep during menopause. More sleep disturbances are reported during menopause and sleep quality deteriorates. Menopause can also be affected by lifestyle with things such as Smoking, obesity, oral contraceptive etc, affecting the onset of menopause. Hormones are under vast changes during and after menopause and there is a reduced production of oestrogen and progesterone. This often causes hot flushes, sweats and mood swings. These factors can evidently take their toll on a women and can affect her sleeping patterns and then also affect her waking life.

Hot Flushes & Oestrogen Levels

If hot flushes become a disruption to your sleep on a frequent basis, there are solutions available with hormone replacement therapy or even anti-depressants. It is also clear that women are more at risk of developing obstructive sleep apnoea during menopause and this can be due to related weight gain as well as lowered levels of oestrogen, which is believed to protect women against obstructive sleep apnoea to some extent. If your sleep is disturbed through menopause and your partner has noticed some irregularities in your breathing then you should consult a doctor.


Relax & Unwind

Due to the changes in hormones, it is often known that stresses of everyday life play a big part in what woman experience during the night. The mind is active at night and with frequent awakenings often being a problem, the mind is left to run over these which will obviously decrease sleep time as the sufferer becomes too stressed to sleep. It is important to associate sleep with a relaxing, refreshing time and this may be hard if you are experiencing frequent interruptions to your sleep. However, as hard as it may seem, try and adopt a healthy nighttime routine and ensure that sleep is what it should be, relaxing (read Factors Affecting Sleeping Patterns).

« Sleep & Pregnancy Sleep & the Elderly »