Insomnia

[MichelleC69]

Hi all, I'm well into the menopause and have been taking HRT for 4+ months. It's working for all of my symptoms except the insomnia which is starting to get unmanageable. I seem to only be able to sleep properly if I sink a bottle of wine before bed, and clearly I can't do this every night! I have a busy job involving a fair bit of travel, and I'm starting to feel like I can't function. Have tried all of the usual natural remedies and nothing works. I've taken over the counter sedatives in the past and they're starting to not have an effect any more. Am getting desperate. Thinking of seeing the doctor again but won't they just prescribe something that will be addictive?

Please please please don't use wine to help you sleep. It's counter productive. The other thing is, alcohol is one of the main causes of breast cancer in women- more than 2 units a day and your risk shoots up. So mixing that with HRT is a no-no.
You need to stop all alcohol as it can actually make it harder to sleep in the long term.

How is your lifestyle? Are you practising sleep hygiene? No screens for an hour before bed, no booze, no caffeine after midday? Maybe a relaxing warm bath?
Exercise- are you getting half an hour or more every day- enough to raise your heart rate?

All that might help BUT you also need to look at the dose of your HRT. It might be as simple as needing slightly more estrogen- what are you taking and what dose? If it's 1mg, have you thought of asking for 2mg dose?

Thanks - yes to the sleep hygiene, have tried all that. I read for at least half an hour before sleep to chill me out. And I exercise 4 or 5 times a week at the gym, plus the usual walking etc.

I'm not using wine to help me sleep, but like most people, I like a drink on a weekend. I was just commenting that this seems to be the only time that I can actually sleep through the night. I don't want that to be the solution.

I'll talk to my doctor about my HRT dose though, as you have suggested.