Three Ways Menopause Can Impact Your Sleep
If you’ve found your sleep suffering since starting menopause, you’re not alone. In fact, over 60% of women report that their sleep gets worse during menopause, and many feel powerless to improve it.
Menopause can impact your sleep in more ways than one, from hot flushes to anxiety. Here are three of the most common ways you may find menopause affecting your sleep.
Hot flushes. The drop in estrogen associated with menopause can often bring with it hot flushes. So, in the middle of the night, you may find that you are overwhelmed by a hot and often quite panicky feeling, which can feel very threatening. In fact, this can often result in people having panic attacks, due to feeling very anxious in the middle of the night.
Anxiety. Many women report increased feelings of anxiety during menopause, perhaps due to the hot flushes or simply the big change in hormones. We all know that anxiety can have a negative impact on our sleep at the best of times as we end up lying in bed hour after hour so when we add hormonal changes to the mix- sleep will suffer.
Sleep apnea. Menopause brings with it an increased risk of sleep apnea. This means women going through menopause may find they are having trouble staying in deeper stages of sleep without feeling like they are woken with breathing difficulty. If you’ve noticed your breathing feels more laboured at night or your snoring has increased during menopause, then get an appointment with your GP about a test for sleep apnea.
The good news is that even though menopause is such a common trigger for poor sleep, there are evidence based changes you can make which will help you to get the quality sleep you need.
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