From Menopausal Insomnia to Better Sleep: 5 Things I Do Now to Fall & Stay Asleep

If you’re struggling with the classic ‘menopause wake-up’ at 3 AM, you’re not alone. The hormonal shifts of perimenopause and menopause can completely disrupt our sleep architecture. Ever since I went from perimenopause into menopause, I have not been able to have a good night's sleep on a regular basis.

It usually goes like this, I sleep great one night, then the next night I'll fall asleep but then I'll wake up around 3 or 4 am and be up for the day. That day around 4 pm, I'm exhausted but force myself to stay up so I'll have a normal night's sleep. This cycle just continues. So, I just get a good night's sleep half the time. This is not going to work for me, so I've been doing a bunch of things that help. It's not perfect but it has been helping.

1.Get Active (Especially Outdoors) to Reset Your Clock - You'll notice when your active, especially when it involves being outdoors, You'll sleep better. Exercise increases your body's need for rest. It depletes your energy, raises body temperature, and creates micro-tears in muscles. Being physically tired gives your body a clear, urgent job to do during sleep. Rest Repair & Recover.

Being active outdoors also has an added benefit, sunlight helps calibrate your circadian rhythm. It signals your brain to suppress melatonin (the sleep hormone) during the day, making you more alert. Then, as darkness falls, your body produces melatonin earlier and more robustly, making you sleepy at an appropriate time.

2.Support Your Health & Nervous System Daily - While the outdoor activity helps support the nervous system, there are so many other ways to do this on the daily. here are a few.

• Meditation/Breathwork - Body relaxation meditations for sleep help me get in the perfect mental state to fall asleep easily.
• Dance for one song every day, it helps release stress from the body
• Try a Yoga Nidra Meditation. Known as deep rest without sleep. This practice has helped during those afternoon slumps I get when I don't sleep. It also helps me to fall asleep.
• Eat real food. When you're eating real whole food you automatically remove added sugar and chemicals and you're adding nutrients the body needs to sleep better. Also, eating too close to bedtime can sometimes keep you awake because of digestive issues.
• Add joy daily. I know this sounds like it's too simple to make a difference but having fun daily is something every human being needs daily. This is not something to save for the weekend. Be sure to do something every day that lights your up.

3.Track Your Caffeine and How It affects you - As we age, our liver metabolizes caffeine more slowly. This is why my former 8 PM coffee now keeps me up. When I was younger, I could have coffee right before bed. Now, I stop my caffeine at 3 pm the latest. Otherwise, it keeps me up.

Also, I love my morning coffee, I love coffee, period. so, I want more than one cup. I switched to half-caf just so I can still have my two cups. It's more about the routine. I lowered my caffeine intake really slowly, so I didn't get any side effects.

So, start to pay attention to how caffeine affects you and make small adjustments to help you fall and stay asleep better.

4.Control Your Screentime at Night - This one can be hard. We all love to scroll on our phones. This disrupts our sleep for a couple of reasons.

First, some of the things we expose ourselves to on our phones, TV, Computer, can course real stress, even if it's just a movie.

When It's closer to bedtime, don't watch that action thriller or doom scroll on TikTok. Choose more relaxing media or just read as you get closer to your bedtime.

5.Calm Your Nervous System Before Bed: Create a Nighttime Routine - This can be a game changer for you. Having a way to wind down every night and doing the same routine, creates an anchor for your body. What this means is, when you do the same thing every night your body starts to recognize the routine over time and will automatically start to relax faster. Your body knows what to expect. Here are a few things that you could add to your routine but you add what helps you wind down the most.

• A bath or shower.
• Reading
• Herbal Tea for sleep
• Turn off all media.
• Turn off or dim the lights.
• A bedtime yoga class or Yin yoga class in your living room.
• Meditation.
• Writing in your journal.
• Relaxing music.

These are just a few ideas, find a few you like and create that magical routine for you.

These are some things you can do to help you fall and stay asleep. As I said earlier, it's not perfect, but it will make a big difference.

The last thing I would recommend that I'm doing for myself is going to see your doctor. Check for nutrition deficiencies and in my case, check your hormones to see if there is anything you can do to help there. In the meantime, do your best to incorporate these 5 things daily.

Wishing you all a happy pleasant night's sleep!

Xo, T