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A compassionate approach to poor sleep during the perimenopause

Many women going through the perimenopause (or menopausal transition) experience disturbed sleep. It’s one, if not the, core symptom of this period. According to research, up to 60% of menopausal women suffer from poor sleep – which also has a knock-on effect on their family, work and social lives.

Adopting a compassionate attitude, i.e. taking a moment to respectfully observe yourself struggling with the aim to support yourself, can help to alleviate poor sleep and its daytime consequences.

From Climate Change to City Lights: How Environmental Factors Affect Your Sleep

How well do you sleep?
Chances are, you’ve experienced poor sleep — and not just once. That’s because sleep is influenced by a complex web of factors, from personal stress to environmental factors such as global climate change.

Sleep Equity for Global Health – World Sleep Day 2024

This year’s theme for World Sleep Day is Sleep Equity for Global Health. But what does it actually mean? In this short post I explain my take on it.

Your Future Self of Sleep

Sleep matters. And while we all know this on a deeper, felt level, many of us tend to ignore our need for healthy sleep. There will be different reasons for this depending on personality and circumstances. But I also wonder if this ignorance of sleep’s benefits for our health is because the harmful effects of not getting enough sleep aren’t always readily noticeable. In other words, sleep is ignored because the future self feels to abstract.

Social Jet lag – when social time wreaks havoc with your inner time

We all have an inner clock. It’s responsible for setting the circadian time of all the various processes and functions within the body. This inner clock takes its cue from the sun clock, the natural progression of the sun(light) over the course of the day.

Sleep Problems in Transgender People

Whatever the colour of your skin, or age, or sexual orientation, or your sex or gender – everyone needs a healthy sleep. Sleep is essential for our physical and mental health; it affects our desire to socialise and how we show up when around others. However, others can have an effect on sleep, minority stress, which is socially based, can have a detrimental effect on sleep of transgender people.

Does daytime napping protect the brain?

Previous studies have shown that napping helps to boost performance. According to a very recent study by Paz et al.¹ regularly taking a nap during the day can help to slow down the natural decline in brain volume and maintain brain health.

A compassionate approach to poor sleep during the perimenopause
Download my free White Paper Poor Sleep During the Perimenopause here. Learn more about how a compassionate attitude helps you to alleviate your struggle with poor sleep and its daytime consequences.
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Want to make sense of sleep?

I wrote Sleep Sense to share my fascination with sleep with all of you. To help you understand why sleep is important for every single one of us. My aim is to empower you to take steps that are right for you to sleep well.

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Somnia

1 month ago

A message to future you! 💙💙💙The harmful effects of not getting enough sleep aren’t always readily noticeable, but you could protect your future self immensely, so take note. You can help her immensely by doing these small things today, tomorrow, next week and next year. Menopause or Perimenopause may seem a long way off or it may feel like something you don’t want to think about right now, but sleep can support you in preparing for this in ways you may not realise, while supporting your other long term health too! Supporting wellbeing now can help you tackle this inevitable change with more ease and more confidence, and one of the biggest influencers in supporting your wellbeing?You guessed it - sleep. 💤 💤💤 Sleep helps you to:💤 Regulate hormones which as you move towards perimenopause, will begin to fluctuate (one of the main factors in temperature changes) - it helps your body adapt to fluctuating oestrogen and progesterone levels.💤 Reduce Inflammation and support recovery. Sleep is one of the biggest components in our bodies’ recovery. Again, fluctuating hormones can impact physical symptoms like inflamation & joint pain - giving your body the quality sleep it really needs to recover and regulate can be game changing. 💤 Support Mood and Mental Clarity - both common complaints during this transition, but can be helped immensely by the way we prepare our bodies and quality sleep is one sure way to do it!Plus, looking before and after perimenopause, lack of sleep can also impact other issues and diseases - for example lack of sleep can increase the risk for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, it affects mood paving the way for mood disorders, and it might increase the risk of dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. So, don’t put it off as unimportant or something you can avoid when you have to, or ‘do with out’. Sleep is valuable to you and your future self.If you want to know more about my thoughts on this topic - I’ve written some words that you’ll find linked in my bio. 💙#Sleep #WomensHealth #SleepForHealth #SleepTherapy #SleepTherapist #SleepWell #SleepHealth #FemaleHealth ... See MoreSee Less

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