Sleep disorders during menopause

Menopause affects every woman differently and each of us will experience different symptoms. However, two of the most frequent symptoms are sleep disorder and insomnia: research shows that it affects between 25% to 30% of women.

Here are three reasons why sleep disorder happens during menopause:

• Age = researches have proven that, with age, the chances of having difficulties spending a good night’s sleep increase. As such, many people in their 40s start experiencing difficult nights and sleep disorders;
• Hormonal changes = oestrogen, progesterone, and melatonin are three hormones that help us spend restful nights. The first one is used to regulate the body’s temperature and, before menopause, due to the oestrogen’s level decreasing, hot flashes can be felt and disturb us in the middle of the night due to night sweats. Progesterone helps balance your mood. When the body produces a lesser quantity of progesterone, mood swings occur, generating sleep disorders. Lastly, melatonin is the sleep hormone. It is known to decrease in quantity as we get older. During menopause, the body decreases those three hormones’ production, resulting in sleep disorders.
• Stress = As the stress level increases, the negative effect this increase has on the adrenal grands increases as well. Those glands take part in supplying the body with a small quantity of oestrogen. Once the ovaries stop producing the hormone during menopause, the glands take over in providing your body with a small quantity of oestrogen. Therefore, if the glands do not work properly, your body will not get enough oestrogen, and you will have trouble sleeping.

Solutions:

There has been a lot of suggestions to help sleep better. Here are some of them:

• Consult your doctor to ask him/her whether a hormonal treatment could be good for you. This treatment helps rebalance the level of oestrogen, progesterone, and melatonin in your body.
• Practice a physical activity aimed at relaxing your body and mind such as yoga or meditation. This will allow your adrenal glands to be healthy so that they can continue producing oestrogen before, during, and after menopause, allowing you to sleep better.
• Some natural products help regulate the body temperature such as black cohosh and hops.
• Nowadays, it is possible to take melatonin as a complement to regulate its quantity in your body. As melatonin is a hormone created by the body, it isn’t harmful to take and there is no risk of addiction. It is recommended to take 1 to 5 mg of melatonin per day.

Our solutions:

To ensure you recover a good night’s sleep, Nutrifem Day & Night relieves menopause’s symptoms during the day as well as during the night thanks to its day formula and night formula. With black cohosh, hops, vitamins B6 and B1, as well as fish oil, it helps reduce night sweats and light sleep disorders for a better night of rest.

If you are looking to improve your night’s sleep in general, Nutrisom, composed of melatonin, hops, passionflower, and valerian, is a mild and natural solution which helps restore a deep and restful sleep without being habit-forming. Its four components are medicinal plants that are traditionally used in herbal medicine to help people sleep better.