If I wrote a fairy tale about women’s sleep habits, it would begin: “Once upon a time, she fell asleep like a baby. After menopause, shut-eye became a nightmare of wakefulness, tossing and turning. She searched in vain for a magic potion. …”
In real life, I tried taking lavender bubble baths and eliminating afternoon coffee. I couldn’t understand why my pillow had transformed from my comfort buddy to my enemy.
“Our sleep changes as we move into perimenopausal and menopausal transitions,” sleep scientist Aric Prather told me in an interview. He is professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, and author of The Sleep Prescription, Seven Days to Unlocking Your Best Rest.
He says sleep complaints from women are common.
“There is some evidence that our circadian rhythm is not as robust as we get older, not making as much melatonin,” Prather says, referring to the hormone our brain naturally releases at night, promoting sleep.
Create a transition from daytime to bedtime. “Wind down, let your body relax, allow sleep to come to you,” Prather says. “Your sleep drive is a balloon that fills up as we use energy during the day. Push bedtimes later to make the balloon bigger, taking advantage of biology to regulate sleep.”
And what if you can’t get back to sleep? At 4 a.m., I’m rarely immersed in happy thoughts, but rather in concerns about the future or pain from physical ailments. Worrying about why we can’t sleep makes us less able to drift off. If you ruminate in bed, your body gets confused.
“Make your bed a shrine to sleep,” Prather says.
Get out of bed until you feel sleepy again. Distract your brain by reading or rewatching a funny, soothing TV show rather than bingeing on an exciting or scary new series.
“Find the sweet spot of low arousal where you have calm, content, positive thoughts,” Prather says.
Here are six suggestions you might try adding to your sleep bag of tricks.
Breathing: 4-7-8
“Breathing in, I calm my body. Breathing out, I smile ”is a famous adage by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist monk. Andrew Weil, a patriarch in the wellness and integrative medicine movement, popularized the 4-7-8 breathing method. While sitting in a chair or lying in bed, inhale through your nose (four counts), hold your breath (seven counts), and exhale through your mouth (eight counts). If you’re like me, your mind races and you worry about everything while trying to fall asleep. According to integrative medicine specialist Melissa Young in an article issued last year by the Cleveland Clinic, 4-7-8 breathing can foster tranquility and reduce anxiety.
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