Has HRT for peri helped you sleep?

[SleepRelay]

I seem unable to fall asleep, I have maybe one night a week when I am that exhausted that I crash at 10 pm and sleep through the next day.

Most nights, I lie there awake with racing thoughts, work stress and literally any crap going through my head. I am doing everything right with daylight, exercise, diet and caffeine, magnesium and less screen time and bedtime routine - nothing works. It does not help that DH falls into bed and starts to breath LOUDLY within 5 mins. That makes me angry and hot, and then I lie and stew in anger, eventually going to spare bedroom.

I am tired, anxious and struggle with decision making and emotional regulation at work. Been to GP and have to have a few check, including ultrasound - if all good, she will discuss HRT. I have no other peri symptoms (age 47), so not sure if this hormonal or general anxiety, or what? If anyone has been through this, has HRT helped, as I want to at least hope for a cure for now.

Broken sleep and insomnia in general was my first symptom of peri menopause about 2 to 3 years ago (I am nearly 47 now). HRT has helped a lot with this, as well as with brain fog. You could also try beta blockers for anxiety.
HRT hasn't helped me with my other key peri symptom till date - feeling cold (especially my feet).

HRT was like a magic wand for my sleep!

Long Covid, however, has ruined my sleep again. I’m still on HRT, and my sleep became even worse when I tried changing it, so it’s still having a beneficial effect. I have tried many strategies to deal with my LC insomnia. The most effective one has been listening to stories via a PillowTalk speaker under my pillow.

I find white noise and music annoying, and podcasts too irregular to be effective. I’m very fussy about the stories. They have to be either fairly dull or very familiar so I don’t stay awake FOMO. The reader’s voice has to be calm and soothing. There must be no sound effects or music between chapters. I download free audiobooks from the library, or use online sleep stories. Erik Ireland is quite good.

It’s very effective. Listening to the right things (whatever is right for you) engages the part of your brain that is not allowing the rest to stop being vigilant. This helps you to break out of the rumination-frustration cycle. Focusing on listening to the sounds under your pillow draws your focus away from the sounds that keep you awake. Dh, another head-pillow-sleep type, snores. If he can’t stop, I put an earplug in my upper ear and turn the volume up slightly on the speaker.

This is a supporting strategy. It in no way replaces HRT. HRT is beneficial in so many ways. I certainly never intend to come off it.

Yes. It fixed sleep issues and hot flushes. Both were getting debilitating so I am very grateful

Unfortunately not for me. I’ve been back to the GP recently for poor sleep and they recommended CBT and I’m also trying a short course of sleeping tablets to see if I can break the cycle because it feels like a routine now.

Both HRT and a longer stint in the spare room helped me. I needed the HRT to sleep and the spare room to do so undisturbed. This has helped with re establishing a normal sleep pattern.

It fixed my sleeplessness and night sweats within a few days. Bliss! That plus a hot water bottle for my cold feet means I'm now in the head-hits-pillow club. 😴

No it hasn't helped for me, however I do feel better in a lot of other ways so I am coping much better with the lack of sleep, which is a positive.

Thank you so much for these hopeful messages! I can’t wait for the appointment now,

It has improved mine. I’m still waking up in the night briefly but now I usually go back to sleep.

instead of getting around 3 to 4 hours every night I’m now getting between on average 6to 8

Yes it really helped mine. I was waking constantly and always at 4am with lots of anxiety. Micronised progesterone before bed really helps. I‘m sure optimising oestrogen levels has an impact too but apparently progesterone is the calming hormone that helps with sleep and anxiety.

I didn’t sleep well for years, I wish I’d started sooner!

Yep, the progesterone pill at bed time pretty much knocks me out in 15 mins or so. It's like magic.

Still waking up at 5am though. Lets see if the clocks changing makes a difference with that.

HRT did improve my sleep, but not to optimal levels (went from 2 or 3 hours a night to about 5). I was already taking mirtazapine for insomnia related to another chronic health issue (inability to fall asleep), and that gets me to sleep, pretty much without fail, but it doesn't deal with early awakening.

HRT improved length of sleep until I had repeated Covid infections.
Vitamin D helps, but not enough.
I tried magnesium, drowsy antihistamines etc. No joy.
I've done a CBTi course through the NHS - no help at all.
I now take daridorexant (prescription only), as it's the only drug designed to keep you asleep. Unfortunately it doesn't help me fall asleep, so I take it alongside mirtazapine. I'm now staying in bed, mostly asleep, for seven or eight hours, for the first time in a decade.

Anyway, yes, HRT is likely to improve your sleep. It helped with all my other symptoms, too - mainly night sweats, brain fog, and extreme irritability.
Remember that hormones change, and you may need to adjust your HRT dose at various points, or try different routes of delivery, to keep it working.

Anxiety and sleeplessness are classic symptoms of perimenopause. HRT should definitely help. I'm 52 and sleep like a baby most of the time, unless I'm stressed by something, in which case I'm awake at 3.30am staring at the ceiling and consumed by worry, but normally it's all good. HRT is a miracle. I'm so grateful that ours is the first generation to benefit from a plant-based, inexpensive and ready-available range of different products.

I agree it’s a miracle. I’m still quite anxious but maybe it would have been even worse without hrt.

But I was having hot flushes every hour and waking up at 4am tossing and turning - hrt totally stopped both those. Am
total convert.

YES! So much so that my gp suggested I skip coming off progesterone for 2 weeks and take it consistently so I get sleep.

Yes, but only when I switched from 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off progesterone to one up the duff every night.

Otherwise I was a depressed mess by day 7 of 2x progesterone followed by an anxious non sleeping wreck on the 2 weeks off.

My periods hadn’t stopped so I did 27 days on, 3 days off for a while but hated the insomnia of the 3 days off so just took it everyday.

Yes I take it every day - I feel much more level headed than I did when hormones were up and down.