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Insomnia and Menopause

Insomnia or difficulty getting or staying asleep can be both a cause and effect of hormonal imbalance. Basically, hormone imbalance resulting from peri-menopause, menopause, and adrenal fatigue may cause sleeplessness which in turn worsens the hormone imbalance. Sleeplessness also has many other non-hormonally related causes such as chronic stress, night sweats, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, and lifestyle habits and dietary choices.

Insomnia in women can worsen hormonal imbalance and the symptoms of menopause because the body needs sleep for the body's hormones to work properly. Sleep is absolutely essential for the body’s repair and rejuvenation. Poor sleep habits has been directly linked to obesity, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and cancer which can predispose us to an early death.

Occasional insomnia, resulting from unusual stress, is common among women. However, when the sleeplessness continues beyond the original cause, then a problem may exist. The longer a woman experiences insomnia without getting help, the higher the probability of it becoming a chronic problem.

Hormones have no chance to do their healing work without sleep. When you lose sleep, you really can't make it up very well. Your hormones just don't spring back as effectively as they did in our youth. Years of cumulative stress, worry, poor diet, and working 24/7 eventually takes its toll. Sleeping less than your body needs affects many hormones causing them to become unbalanced which in turn can affect appetite, attitude, energy, mental and physical health, and quality and length of life. Natural progesterone is a calming and sleep inducing hormone and estrogen is a sleep-maintaining hormone, Together, they create a powerful combination to promote restful and reparative sleep.

Balancing hormones through bio-identical hormone therapy can provide relief from sleeplessness by personalizing a hormonal, nutritional, and healthy habit and fitness program. Developing healthy sleeping habits also helps prevent insomnia. Developing a bed time routine and going to sleep around the same time each night helps your body form good sleep tendencies. Eliminating television, computer lighting, and other distractions before bedtime is essential to establishing good sleep habits. Sound sleep has been shown to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, breast cancer, and depression.

Since testosterone is brain protective, correcting a low or imbalanced level of testosterone can also slow brain waves and promote a deep, more restful sleep as well in both men and women.