Are You Getting the Required Amount of Sleep?

Insomnia is defined as difficulty getting to sleep or getting back to sleep after awakening. This happens to be a common side effect of menopause. If you have already had a hard time getting a good night’s sleep, you may end up getting even less.

The decrease in estrogen that causes night sweats can also cause frequent awakenings but not being able to fall asleep or stay asleep can be aggravated by unhealthy eating and drinking habits, medications, anxiety, stress and/or depression.

Insomnia and tiredness are, a lot of times, the result of unprocessed and unresolved emotions like anger, sadness or anxiety which can be part of the huge changes about to take place.

Because of interrupted sleep, you wake up tired and feel fatigued all day. You aren’t able to get to the deep stages of sleep at night that helps make you rested and energetic. While we sleep, the body releases the greatest amount of growth hormone, which helps your body repair damaged tissue.

If you resort to sleeping pills, then you have to keep upping the dosage over time to receive the same effect. They are habit forming and to discontinuing them may be hard.

Here are some suggestions for helping you to fall asleep:

1- Don't exercise 5-6 hours before bedtime.

2- Try to get to bed at a regular time each night.

3- Before bed, read or meditate for 15 minutes. If meditating, concentrate on your breathing. Try deep
breathing exercises. Most of us breathe too shallow.

4- Avoid watching violence on tv, in a movie or in a book.

5- Eat a light snack of something containing tryptophan like cottage cheese, yogurt, banana, or a piece of turkey. (L-tryptophan does help to induce sleep but is different than that found in foods containing
tryptophan.)

6- Drink some SleepyTime Tea or Chamomile Tea during the evening before bedtime.

7- There is a tart cherry called Montmorency that contains a significant level of melatonin and hence is helpful as a natural sleep aid.

Did you know that it takes about 2 hours to shut down before sleeping after being on the computer or watching television?