This article is part ofHealth Divide: Menopause and Black Women, a destination in our Health Divide series.
Additional symptoms might include sweating, weight gain, and vaginal dryness.
Sleep disturbances are quite common in menopause, and prevalence seems to increase with age.
FG Trade/ Getty Images
FG Trade/ Getty Images
Menopause and Sleep: What’s the Connection?
Menopause occurs because of hormone level declinesmainlyestrogen,progesterone, andtestosterone.These hormones regulate your reproductive function and menstrual cycles.
They will also affect your mood, energy,libido(sex drive), cognition, and sleep.
As these three main hormones fluctuate during the different stages of menopause, they will affect your sleep.
Another reason for sleep troubles as people age ismelatoninlevels.
Melatonin is the body’s natural sleep hormone.
Melatonin level decreases are not necessarily related to menopause.
They typically decrease before this transition and affect people of all sexes equally.
What Menopausal Symptoms Affect Sleep?
Not getting enough sleep can affect all aspects of your life.
Lack of sleep makes you forgetful, irritable, and depressed.
Research shows poor sleep can worsen menopausal symptoms, especiallyhot flashes.
Menopausal symptoms will vary from person to person and throughout menopause, starting at perimenopause and continuing throughout menopause.
These are collectively referred to asvasomotor symptoms(VMS).
Hot flashes are typically accompanied by sweating and start in the face, spreading into the chest and down.
These symptoms result from thinning, drying, and inflammation of delicate tissues.
Mood Changes
Mood changes common in menopause areanxiety,depression, and irritability.
A 2018 study found that musculoskeletal (muscle and joint) pain affects 21% of people in menopause.
The SWAN study also found Black women with higher fat percentages had the most prolonged and severe hot flashes.
What Sleep Issues Are Associated With Menopause?
Menopause sleep troubles will vary from person to person.
Sleep troubles associated with menopause include insomnia, breathing troubles related tosleep apnea, andrestless legs syndrome.
The more significant the changes, the higher your risk for insomnia.
What Is Sleep-Disordered Breathing?
“Sleep-disordered breathing” is a general term for sleep conditions that affect regular breathing patterns during sleep.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a jot down of SDB.
Before menopause, the risk for sleep apnea is much lower than afterward.
While RLS is not explicitly linked to menopause, the condition is common with aging.
Menopause Stages and Sleep
Menopause can be a long-term transition in which hormones shift and decrease.
These different shifts can affect your sleep and even lead to sleep problems.
Some people experience sleep troubles before and during their periods due to hormonal fluctuations.
Perimenopause
Perimenopause is the transitional phase toward menopause.
Menopause and Postmenopause
You reach menopause when you have not had periods for 12 straight months.
The time after that is called postmenopause.Progesterone is no longer produced, and estrogen is produced at low levels.
While the symptoms of menopause might ease, sleep troubles might continue.
Can Menopause Treatments Improve Sleep?
Estrogen andhormone replacement therapiescan increase estrogen and progesterone levels.
When hormone levels are balanced, symptoms like hot flashes, mood swings, and insomnia will improve.
Over-the-counter (OTC) sleep aids, such as melatonin, can help improve your sleep.
Your healthcare provider can also prescribesleep medicinesto help you sleep.
Prescription sleep medicines should only be taken for short periods and do not cure sleep problems like insomnia.
They might also improve hot flashes, night sweats, and other menopausal symptoms.
They can recommend treatments and sleep strategies to help manage menopausal symptoms and improve sleep.
Sleep problems seem to increase based on the stage of menopause and can vary from person to person.
Sleep troubles are also more common and more severe in Black women.
you might improve sleep troubles by managing menopausal symptoms with hormone replacement therapies and antidepressants.
Melatonin and prescription sleep aids might also improve sleep.
2019;25(3):172].J Menopausal Med.
2013;178(1):70-83. doi:10.1093/aje/kws421
The North American Menopause Society.Changes in hormone levels.
2015;21(2):65-71. doi:10.6118/jmm.2015.21.2.65
Watt FE.Musculoskeletal pain and menopause.Post Reproductive Health.
2018;24(1):34-43. doi:10.1177/2053369118757537
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.What is insomnia?
2016;3(6):1064.
Penn Medicine.The change before the change: 9 questions about perimenopause.
Jehan S, Auguste E, Hussain M, et al.Sleep and premenstrual syndrome.J Sleep Med Disord.
2016;3(5):1061.
National Institute on Aging.What is menopause?
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Sleep duration and quality among women aged 4059, by menopausal status.
Office of Women’s Health.Menopause.
Ruddy KJ, Loprinzi CL.Antidepressants decrease hot flashes and improve life quality.Menopause.
2017;24(2):171-179. doi:10.1097/GME.0000000000000735
