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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.

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 negative health consequences of insufficient sleep aren’t always readily noticeable. In other words, sleep is ignored because the future self feels to abstract.


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.


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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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2 days ago

Somnia
The trouble with this ‘magical’ time of year...🎄Bare with me!Christmas is a ‘special’ time, it is heavily marketed to us as such, but it brings with it plenty of ‘others’ for many of us.It can be a challenging time emotionally, financially and physically due to cold weather and darker days. The cost of living crisis only exacerbates those Christmas concerns further for most of us.To be able to look after yourself and others, you need to have the energy and focus to do this.✨Let good quality sleep be the gift you give yourself and others this year. ✨Be kind to yourself during what can, in reality, be quite a stressful time of year. #Sleep #WellBeing #WomensWellbeing #SleepWell #GiftIdeas #HealthAndWellbeing #MentalHealth #WinterWellness #ChristmasWellbeing ... See MoreSee Less
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