Women starting perimenopause and those post-menopause tend to not sleep well, according to studies.
As many as 63% of women have insomnia during menopause and 70% have night sweats which kept them awake.
The biggest problem across all ethnicities was staying asleep and waking up too early.
Those problems start in late perimenopause, according to the studies.
Topical Hormone Replacement
Other studies have looked at how hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help alleviate sleepless nights.
There are several variations of it that are legal without a doctor and other types that are legal with a doctor’s care.
Topical hormone replacement therapies are available both over-the-counter and by prescription.
These are estrogen creams and intra-vaginal pessaries.
They will help you sleep but also relieve dryness and atrophy.
However, you shouldn’t get products containing mineral oil or other additives.
They can cause irritation.
HRT as given by a doctor can dramatically improve sleep both in going to sleep and staying asleep.
It also lessens chronic pain, helps your mood and other symptoms like hot flashes and night sweats.
Estrogen Replacement
One of the best options, according to students from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is estrogen
replacement therapy (ERT).
This made sleep patterns more like normal for postmenopausal women, according to a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
The study of post-menopausal women agest 46 to 62 showe dthat ERT increased patients REM sleep
and reduce their awake time during the first two sleep cycles from 20 minutes to 12 minutes.
A person can have between four and six sleep cycles a night with each ranging from 70 to 120 minutes.
A sleep cycle is a time of non-REM sleep that is followed by at least five minutes of REM sleep.
The ERT produced sleep that measures to the same quality of a much younger person, according to the study.
Women who weren’t given the treatment reported being dissatisfied with their sleep with 10 of the 11 women having complaints.
