Many women in their forties and fifties complain that getting a good night's sleep is a thing of the past. They mourn the loss of deep, restful sleep and struggle to cope with the fatigue, grumpiness, and inability to concentrate that are the natural results of sleeping poorly or not enough. Most wisely try to avoid sleeping pills, or take them guiltily, not knowing what else to do. So what does work?
Solution: The first and easiest fixes you can make to help you sleep are in the arena known as "sleep hygiene," which simply means all the factors surrounding getting to and staying sleep:
- Keep your bedroom cool and breezy; open the window or run a fan in summer.
- Use layers of covers, just as you do with clothes. Make sure your bed has a couple of top layers you can throw off and put back on easily, without crossing the room or turning on a light.
- Speaking of light, get rid of as much of it as possible. Use blackout shades, tape over the lights on alarm clocks and smoke alarms, turn electronic devices to the wall.
- Create a schedule that works for you. If you have to be up at 6:30 a.m. on weekdays, be in bed by 10:30 p.m. If you prefer to stay up later and sleep till 8 a.m., do so -- but try to be consistent. And yes, unfortunately, sleep scheduling works best if you stick to it even on weekends.
- Set aside the last hour before bed for restful, relaxing activities. If possible, exclude computer work; studies show that the bright light of the computer screen affects your circadian rhythm, the internal clock that regulates sleep.
- Keep your bedroom work- and computer free, so that daytime stresses don't intrude.
- Tire your muscles with at least half an hour of exercise a day, but not within two hours of bedtime.
- If bathroom trips are waking you in the middle of the night, don't drink liquids after 8 p.m.
- Don't drink tea, coffee, or caffeinated cola within six hours of bedtime.
- Avoid alcohol in the evenings; it may make you feel relaxed, but it causes middle-of-the-night insomnia.
- If you're still not sleeping well, try taking a small dose (.3 to 1 milligram; this means cutting 3 milligram pills into thirds) of melatonin about an hour before bedtime.
More and more doctors are prescribing Ambien and Lunesta as sleep aids for women who complain of menopausal insomnia. However, research shows mixed results on the effectiveness of these drugs, and they can cause psychological if not physical dependency. Here's the problem: Both are recommended for short-term use, if you're in a situation where stress and other factors are making sleep difficult. But since menopause-related sleep issues typically persist for years, you want a long-term solution, and sleeping pills are not a good idea for the long haul. Yet once you start taking sleeping pills, it can be more difficult to sleep when you try to stop taking them -- so you're setting yourself up for future sleep problems. With that in mind, first try everything else on the list above, before resorting to sleeping pills.
