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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.

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.


Why a late dinner is bad news for your waistline

Is it bad to eat late at night? This question is coming up a lot in my work with clients. Luckily, several research groups are investigating how meal timing affects metabolic health. (And sleep – but I will talk about that latter point in more detail in a different post). In this blog, I will summarise the findings from two recent studies, and I focus on how the timing of your biggest daily meal and eating late can impact weight loss. And the opposite, weight gain and obesity.


Is your inner critic giving you a hard time for not sleeping well?

When we make a mistake, we often blame and point the finger at ourselves for what we perceive as a major personal short-coming. Within seconds our mind starts to beat us up, wielding an invisible measurement stick and complaining that “You should have done this better, you are simply not good enough! Who will like you? You are a failure!” And these might be some of the ‘nicer’ thoughts that your mind hurls at you. But even when we are not making mistakes, our critical mind, the inner bully, is constantly evaluating what we are doing and how well we are doing it.


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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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We're all really living by three, different clocks which regulate our lives: The sun, the body and the social clock. ☀️ The sun clock refers to the progression of the sun, giving rise to day and night. 🙏 Tethered to it is the body clock or circadian clock, which orchestrates the body’s physiology to meet the changing demands of day and night. While the first two clocks are natural clocks, humans have invented a third clock, the social clock.🤝 We have created time zones and divided the day into 24 chunks.Before the industrial revolution, the three clocks were operating in harmony, but with the advent of the railway electrical lighting, this started to change.We use devices on the walls and our wrists to tell us what time it is decoupled from the natural sun clock and are therefore in conflict with our circadian clock.Within this final clock, we also decided that twice a year, this shall change, adding or taking away one hour. Is it any wonder then, that our bodies can struggle under the demands and pulls of the third clock, and which opposes the beat of the circadian clock? By understanding the natural, circadian clock that our bodies use to regulate themselves, and by understanding how we can work with them within the confines of the social clock, we can help ourselves to support our wellbeing and sleep routines.#Sleep #Bodyclock #sleeptherapy #circadianrhythm #naturalliving #circadianbiology #circadianclock #womenshealth #sleepbetter #healthandwellbeing #femalehealth #sleeptips #insomnia #DrKatSleep #HealthyLiving #SleepBetter #Selfcare #Selflove #MeTime #EveningRoutine #cantsleep #sleepscience #bedtime #sleephelp #wellbeing #wellness #routines ... See MoreSee Less
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