Nature laughs at the menopausal woman?

[CosmopolitanCocktail]

It’s Saturday morning- I have been wide awake since 5am (thanks menopause).
I have two slumbering teenagers and a husband. They will sleep in for hours today left to their own devices and they all deserve it as they all have worked hard this week.

But bloody hell I’m JEALOUS. I’d love that really deep and relaxing sleep of old.
Its like nature truly kicking you in the teeth- when the kids were young and I wanted to sleep I’d be up at 6am bleary eyed and have to go down stairs on Saturday morning (hello CBeebies).
Now kids sleep in and I’m totally incapable of sleep.

So apart from the whinge (thanks for reading) what does anyone else do on weekend their mornings whilst waiting for their house to wake up?

I would go for a walk somewhere lovely and enjoy the most magical part of the day.

Magnesium glycinate, full dose, every night !! Game changer !!

Hats off to you, Wanda. To me, the idea of cracking on with a pile of marking when literally nobody in the whole street is up yet feels like rubbing salt in the wounds. But it's probably a very good idea.

Maybe I need to reframe the early wakings as 'my super-power' 🤔

Go for a walk. Read. Work out. Meditate. Watch a programme no one else likes. Enjoy the calm. Then have a nap later. And ignore the naysayers who scold “ooo if you nap you won’t sleep later”. You’re not sleeping anyway, so fuck em (and tell them to hush, you’re sleeping).

Does anyone find that going to bed early sort of evens it out?
I have to work late most nights so rarely get ready for bed until midnight -1am, which makes perpetually waking up at 5 a kicker. I'm now thinking that perhaps I just need to go to bed at 10, accept that I'm going to wake up at 5, be grateful for 7 hours (fingers crossed) and get the work done in the morning before actually going to work (teacher).

HRT fixed it for me.

i didn’t mind so much in summer when I could have a cup of coffee outside and listen to the birds. I used Merlin the bird app and got quite good at identifying some.

Same. Early rising ds for 10 years who now sleeps half the day.
I've grown to love the early mornings to myself which usually start at 5am for me, even better when it's dark and the rest of the world appears asleep, it's just so peaceful.
Weekdays I work out, weekends I just use the time to relax, like today, I curled up on the sofa with a coffee and watched a movie. That time is mine and one thing I won't do is use it for chores!
It helps that I now also have a totally flexible job so can start at 7am If I want a nice early finish.

I’m so pleased I am not alone.
I feel more at peace reading this thread.
I’m already on HRT but still not sleeping well
I will learn to embrace the my 5am wake up and reframe it as “me time”.

Life is a stitch up.
Hope this helps

I’ve accepted this is my sleep pattern now, weekdays I do some form of relaxation if it’s very early, 3:30/4ish and tend to doze on and off a bit till 6ish. Ive always been a late bedder, midnightish so usually feel tired, I go earlier at times but takes me a while to drop off then so ends up much of a muchness.

At the weekend I go to the loo then eat breakfast and go back to bed, scroll ipad or read till I doze off and hey presto its now and Ive only been awake again for about 40 minutes. DH was rattling about a bit at 10 but I rolled over and snoozed a little bit more.

Magnesium for me too. I moved house recently and didn’t take it for a few days until I found it and my sleep reverted back to shocking! Awake at 0315 and can’t get back to sleep…

Now back on it and sleeping like a log.

It varies from woman to woman, I find that I simply only need 6 hours perhaps only 5 hours sleep per night which is an advantage

Melatonin. 10mg at bedtime. You can get it from Biovea.

Me too!

I am awake - and yet somehow tired - at 5.30am most days. Does the tiredness mean I can go back to sleep? Does it fuck.

I’ve used magnesium spray in the past, Better You do a good one. You do need to be careful what type you use though: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/18zrR9QTVW/?mibextid=wwXIfr

@TheLongNow the only way I can cope is by going to bed at 9, and sleep at 9h30, I feel so much better for it. On the rare days when I can't get to bed early the following day is absolute hell.

Good to know, Alice. I think this is what I might need to do.

I hear you @CosmopolitanCocktail.I go to the beach and swim in the sea. I’m back before any of them are out of bed.

I should probably tell you that this morning I failed to so my marking as dd woke up so we just watched Downton in our PJ's. Maybe tomorrow. I quite like getting a bit of work out the way first thing, it means it's not hanging over me on a Sunday night!

@CosmopolitanCocktail thank you for the thread! Some great advice on here about making peace with lack of sleep.

hrt, magnesium and I do my workout before bed so I’m knackered

Helped me for a while but still didn't get as much sleep as I wanted. 5 hours was the best I managed but it's stopped working now. Probably not slept through the night for 15 years now. They won't let me have HRT😞

I'm convinced more and more that a lot of the symptoms are evolutionary so we take over a lot of the hard bits off childcare to enable the younger ones to go out and hunt, gather (the men) and whatever younger women did. Tend to the animals/crops maybe?

This would explain the lack of sleep, and a couple of other things that I can't remember what they are right now though 🙄

We were supposed to live in tribes, weren't we.

Agree with everyone saying to make the most of it as 'me' time. I wake up early every weekend (not by choice!) Despite oversleeping nearly every weekday. It's so frustrating. I get up, make a lovely hot drink and make my fave breakfast and just do whatever I want for a couple of hours. It's bliss!

That’s not normal.. how awful for you