A Guide to Menopause and Insomnia
July 22nd, 2008Women are almost predestined from birth to face difficulty either falling asleep easily or staying asleep as they age and enter that period in their life when they go through menopause. Not only do the hormonal changes experienced during menopause cause grave discomfort to many women, but the overall fatigue associated with menopause and accompanying insomnia can make the quality of their lives far less than optimal. Menopause symptoms may include insomnia, hot flashes, moodiness, aching joints, headaches, and a significant drop in libido. Thus, it is important that a woman going through these “life trials” consult her doctor concerning potential treatments she should take to reduce the symptoms and possible after-effects.
Menopausal symptoms obviously can make life extremely uncomfortable and women often complain most bitterly about the inability to sleep. Tossing and turning when one is exhausted is close to torturous when it is considered that there is immense stress and anxiety that is precipitated by the inability to sleep. A large portion of this stress, ironically and sadly, is produced by hormones that are released into the body as a function of the stress that results from insomnia.
Research indicates, in fact, that one in three menopausal women undergo considerable misery during the change in their lives to the extent that major medical investigations are ongoing in an effort to ameliorate the discomforts associated with insomnia and menopause. The results of these ongoing research efforts in conjunction with providing information to women appear to be helping with this very challenging frontier.
During menopause it is common for women to experience interruptions in sleep cycling because of a variety of factors that include night sweats, due to a drop in estrogen levels in the body. These episodes in which a woman can awake in the middle of the night drenched in sweat are obviously a major disruption to sleep. Further, because of the associated stress with these episodes, it can be difficult getting back to sleep once they have aroused.
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