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Menopause and Sleepless Nights - Psychological Effects of Menopause

By Kevin Pederson
Aug 14, 2009
Menopause is a major change in the life of a woman. It is the time in a woman's life when her menstrual cycle ends. Women who face menopause experience a wide range of symptoms and chief among them is disturbed sleep and chronic sleeplessness. Most people are of the opinion that insomnia implies an inability to sleep, but insomnia also includes an inability to enjoy undisturbed deep sleep. Women who experience insomnia due to menopause are unable to maintain proper or full sleep. Many complain of waking up a number of times every night and find it extremely difficult to get back to sleep.

Other common symptoms of menopause include sudden brief sensations of heat, or night sweats, which causes further disturbances in sleep patterns. Some women may no longer experience night sweats, especially if they are undergoing treatment, and thus normal sleeping habits may settle in after menopause. Some others, unfortunately, develop long-lasting and recurrent insomnia when menopausal symptoms do not go away. Most medical health experts are of the opinion that if a menopausal woman is unable to sleep every night or most nights in a month, then she may be suffering from chronic insomnia.

Some of the options available to women include medications, nutritional therapeutics, and lifestyle alterations. One particular study claims that while 72 percent of women getting into menopause may have some changes in bodily functions, most symptoms can be dealt with the help of healthful lifestyle changes. Medical experts opine that women who are suffering from an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular stroke, malignant growth or tumor must not be recommended hormonal medicines or narcotics to curb sleeplessness due to menopause.

Doctors conclude that the reason for insomnia during menopause is due to the bodys lack of ability to keep up a homogeneous temperature, which may be caused by the change and unsteadiness in estrogen and progesterone levels. The best way to address menopausal chronic sleeplessness is to deal with the changes in bodily function due to menopause. Else, there might be a genuine risk of sleep disorders, persisting long after the initial stages of menopause. Stress and anxiety that gets heightened during menopause can be addressed by a combination of different therapies. Physical exercise or workout is a good way to unwind the body and help bring about restful sleep at night. In a strange manner, it is believed that exercising in the morning is far more beneficial to sleep; this could be because sunlight helps to set the daily cycle of activity for the day.
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