The sleep thing

[gobackanddoitproperly]

I would have been an Olympian swimmer, should such an event have existed. Now, I can’t remember the last time I slept through the night. I know this is part of menopause (52, no periods for 3 years now) but my question is, does anyone else experience this, in the absence of hot flushes? Just a general ‘wakefulness’ I suppose. Every night, from about 2-4 am? I do get the odd hot flush, but they’re not severe and not in the middle of the night.

I’m not on any HRT.

Not sure. I wake at least twice a night flushing like crazy and needing a pee. I'm convinced my full bladder heats my entire body up...

Commiserations @gobackanddoitproperly. It's rubbish.

Yes. Amitryptiline 10mg on prescription helps enormously.

Yes another one her, HRT not really helping. I read the sleeping in. 2 parts thing a few months ago which has helped me to stress about it a bit less.

Organic cherry juice ... Just saying.

all week i have woken up at 5.20 am

Yes! Desperate to solve this problem.
Once schools go back and I am no longer allowed to WFH I really don’t know how I’ll cope.
Awake from about 1 for 2 or 3 hours every night. I am one of those people that needs plenty of sleep to function.

Oh yes.

I have seen 12.30am and 5.20am every night this week.

I'm 58 and on HRT.

Sadly, the only way I can guarantee a solid nights sleep is alcohol, which is hardly ideal, is it??

Oddly, though, today is a day off from work, and on Thursday mornings I generally wake, after napping from 5.20am, (or am still awake since then) with DH at 7 or 8am, then catch up on sleep til 11 or 12 noon, but despite probably having had no more than 5 or 6 hours a night sleep for days on end, though my eyes are stinging right now, I don't think I could sleep.

Admittedly, I'm a bit wired about all the things I should be doing!

I worry that reduced sleep shortens life and increases obesity, too 😔

Slept right through last night but did have a bottle of Chardonnay last night. I have today off and wouldn’t recommend on a school night

Babies destroyed my sleep in early 30s & I never recovered.
it is amazing how little sleep I get by on.
I'm not tired. Just astounded.

I always had some type of insomnia, anyway.

I feel like the cumulative effect of months of poor sleep is destroying me. I don't have caffeine and I rarely drink alcohol. I turn off screens early and go to bed at 10 a.m. in the hope of getting eight hours sleep. I even bought a new mattress so I should be comfortable. I'm doing everything I can but I still can't stay asleep any more. I don't have any trouble getting to sleep but from 2-5 a.m. I'm frequently awake. I'm tired all the time in the day. I've been asking for HRT for over a year but the GP says I'm too young at age 45 and there's definitely no possibility of bioidentical HRT; the only thing they can offer me in the future (once I've seen a gynaecologist) is the Mirena coil. Does that even help with sleep? I'm desperate enough to try anything at this point.

That’s so frustrating @StuntNun. If you have symptoms then at 45 you could definitely be peri menopausal.
I’ve been on HRT since I was 47 and should really have bitten the bullet and started sooner.
I’m sure I read somewhere that I’d you’re 45 and over and have symptoms you don’t need a blood test either. Can you see a different GP at the practice? Or afford to go to a private consultant?

I feel like the double sleep shift has something right because I wake between 1 and 4 then get another wave of sleep. The problem is it’s not conducive to working 9-5.

Maybe menopausal women should get special exemption to change their working hours but how would we cook dinner for our kids coming home later?

I’ve had poor sleep for years but the sleep problems with menopause very nearly finished me off. I was waking up every hour or so, then properly awake at about 4.

Now on HRT and it’s really helping, but still get wakefulness between 3ish and 4ish. I can now get back to sleep for a bit and wake up again at 6ish, so overall it’s much better.

Thank goodness, because I was also under a lot of stress and that compounded by no sleep meant that I wasn’t far off a total breakdown.

Thanks for the sympathy @OverByYer. It's not just the disturbed sleep, I've been having very heavy unbelievably heavy periods with cycles from 20 to 31 days for the past two years so about every six months I get two periods in one month which just doesn't seem fair! I also get hot flushes and my libido has evaporated. And my mum had menopause at age 41 so I don't see why they think I'm too young for menopause at 45. Anyway I'm seeing the gynae on the 28th September and, fingers crossed, he'll fit a Mirena which will hopefully make some difference.

@StuntNun

Thanks for the sympathy *@OverByYer*. It's not just the disturbed sleep, I've been having very heavy unbelievably heavy periods with cycles from 20 to 31 days for the past two years so about every six months I get two periods in one month which just doesn't seem fair! I also get hot flushes and my libido has evaporated. And my mum had menopause at age 41 so I don't see why they think I'm too young for menopause at 45. Anyway I'm seeing the gynae on the 28th September and, fingers crossed, he'll fit a Mirena which will hopefully make some difference.

I had horrendous bleeding in my early 40s , flooding abs losing huge clots. Ended up in A&E I lost so much blood one day. It turned out I had cervical polyps. Once they were removed my periods really settled. Make sure they examine you properly. They kept trying to fob me off with Mirena but I had had it previously and didn’t get on with it. Who’d be a woman?

HRT largely resolved my insomnia.

StuntNun, your screenshot doesn't show you awake from 2-5am many nights. The fitbit thinks if you did wake up you went back to sleep quickly -- is your Fitbit wrong?

I can do a frightening screen shot if you like...

This is what segmented sleep looks like on my Fitbit... on 3 Aug I was probably awake for a solid 2+ hours, but lying still so Fitbit recorded wrongly as sometime asleep (this can happen in daytime, too). I do a lot of editing the sleep log for the real hours I was asleep. If I can remember what was on the radio, then I wasn't asleep then, even if Fitbit thinks I was.

My Fitbit broke so I don’t have it anymore but I used to score quite well. What I find helps me at the moment is every night I listen to a sleep story on Calm. They do have some free ones on YouTube so you can try it. I also find the Sanctuary sleep mist seems to work really well for me too.

Thanks @OverByYer cervical polyps sound serious! I've had an ultrasound and they're doing a biopsy next month so at least they're ruling out the dangerous stuff. I haven't used hormonal contraception since my mid-20s so it seems reasonable to give it a shot I suppose.

That's good to know, @oneglassandpuzzled may I ask which HRT meds helped you?

I'm not sure about the Fitbit @YeOldeTrout but when I'm awake I usually lie in the same position reading my Kindle so I don't know whether it picks that up as awake time or not. I keep it under my pillow so I don't move much to pull it out and start reading. I've always needed a lot of sleep so I really need the eight hours to be able to function, even more during the middle of winter. Whereas my DH can happily get by on six hours per night.

I’m on oestrogel and a mirena coil.

Thanks @oneglassandpuzzled so there's hope for the rest of us then!

I know it doesn’t help everyone but it’s been good for me. Best of luck!

Yep. Get off to sleep then I'm wide awake for hours. Tingling hands and feet as well as mind racing. About 2pm I feel so tired I literally fall asleep at my desk.

I’ve had sleep issues throughout peri menopause and menopause - think I’m inbetween at almost 50.

Funnily enough a good friend a couple of years old told me when I was late 30s, you’ll sleep a lot more in your early 40s (peri) and I did, could sleep for Britain! Then suddenly a few years later got insomnia and hot flushes and it’s getting to sleep that is the issue as well as waking.

I find a good routine helps, eg working and also walking and other exercise. I have just tried Floradix Magnesium liquid and Better You Magnesium Body Butter which I think I prefer to their nighttime spray which I found had a stinging after effect. Factor in back issues (WFH) which I’m going to Pilates classes for and sleep can be hard to come by.

I do like a routine of relaxing tv, book, camomile tea about 1-2 hours before bed which does help.