If you are facing difficulty in the night with sleep, tossing around, turning around, rolling over on your stomach, not able to fall asleep, not feeling relaxed, you are in the grips of insomnia.
A number of factors may cause insomnia in women. Younger women generally have better sleep as compared to older women.
Whether you’re a housewife or a working woman, from careers, to kids, to social and family events, life comes first and sleep comes last. Women are twice as likely as men to have difficulties falling asleep or staying asleep.
Insomnia or sleeplessness may keep you awake for a night or two as you struggle with problems at work or at home. Every women will experience the problem of insomnia at some point of her life. Insomnia is not about difficulty in sleeping but it can also make you get up early in the morning.
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What Causes Insomnia in Women ?
There are many factors that can cause insomnia in women. Some of these causes include :
Hormonal changes
In women, there are many events of hormonal changes that can cause insomnia. These events are premenstrual syndrome, menstruation, pregnancy and menopause. All these conditions are temporary and sleeplessness or insomnia caused due to these reasons can be eliminated with proper sleep hygiene.
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During Menstruation (Menstrual Insomnia)
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The hormone called estrogen keeps you alert and progesterone makes you sleepy. The levels of progesterone decreases during menstruation, causing insomnia. When the level of progesterone rises during ovulation, you may feel sleepy than usual.
During menstruation period, the hormone levels are at their lowest. More than 70% of women complain of sleep problems during menstruation period. The quality of sleep varies at different points in your menstrual cycle.
Menstrual insomnia is a regular, recurring problem for some women once a month, just before the menstrual period starts. Premenstrual syndrome is also a big reason of insomnia in women.
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During Pregnancy
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Insomnia during pregnancy occurs for a range of reasons, and the two conditions are not actually connected. The changes in the levels of progesterone in the first and last trimester of pregnancy can disrupt the normal sleep cycle.
If you have had insomnia in the past, before the pregnancy took place, then there is every likelihood that the condition could relate to something which took place in the past. If you have altered your lifestyle considerably in the recent past, even if you have changed it significantly for the better, then this could also be having an impact on your ability to get to sleep. Whichever you consider to be the truth, it will make sense to undertake a revision of life habits.
It goes without saying that getting to sleep for anyone will be much easier in a room which is adequately cool, and which has an absence of unwanted noise and light. If you are attempting to sleep in difficult conditions, then it will be worth thinking about whether you can make any improvements.
You can always use foam earplugs or white noise machines to overcome the effects of excessive noise, and light can always be cut out if it is coming in from outside. Making the bed comfortable is clearly going to be more of a challenge if you are pregnant, but this needs to happen for sleep to be constant. Think about investing in a good pregnancy pillow.
Design to your way of life so that it gives you the best possible chance of getting to sleep at night. Don’t ignore the effects of electronic gadgets such as televisions and computers, as their effects can be amplified when you are feeling very tired.
It is best to have no electronic gadgets in the bedroom, but if they do have to be stored there, avoid using them in the two hours just just before you go to bed. Avoid the use of cell phones if possible, and make any telephone calls on a land line handset.
If you are only just embarking upon pregnancy insomnia might come as a shock to you. Don’t be tempted to look for fast solutions such as over the counter drugs, as these are misguided in terms of the long term side effects they can have on the human body.
It is in particular not known how they could have an impact on the unborn baby. It is certain that they will have no positive influence, so take the safe option and leave them alone. Don’t forget, pregnancy does not last forever, so don’t take risks in attempting to overcome pregnancy insomnia.
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Menopause
During the first phases of menopause, hormones are fluctuating intensely. You may experience hot flashes, a sense of anxiety, and sweating, all which may cause wakefulness at night.
Menopause and insomnia can be connected, although there is absolutely no guarantee that one will predictably lead to the other. As with so many other health conditions in the human body, the healthier you can continue to be, and the better you can take care of your own body, the better prepared you will be to come through any changes without any severe disruption or implications. The tactics which anybody can use to increase their chances of restful sleep will also apply just as well at this life stage as any other.
To all those who are going through the menopause insomnia can just be one more worry on top of a generally challenging time. If it feels as though this is likely to be the case, you will truly feel a lot better by taking immediate action to try to manage the situation rather than sitting back and permitting yourself to turn into a victim. There are quite a few steps which can be taken to reduce the likelihood of sleep interference becoming a problem to add to everything else which is occurring in your life. A lot of of these steps will have a knock on effect into other parts of your life, improving your sense of health and fitness.
One of the standard pieces of advice given to those with insomnia is to make sure that the room is ideally set up for relaxed sleep. This means reducing unwanted noise and light, and also making sure that the room is at the right temperature. In the case of somebody going through the menopause, it will be even more essential to keep the room cool and well ventilated. If you can move all electrical appliances and electronic devices out of the room, other than the essentials such as the alarm clock, that will also be a good help.
Handling the menopause and insomnia is normally a simple case of discovering a lifestyle management alternative which be useful in this specific case. If you regularly smoke, then it will be enormously to the benefit of your general health if you can stop, at the very least for the time you are going through the menopause and if possible for good. In addition to the apparent issues of the toxins which are existing in modern tobacco products, which can have severe implications, there is also the issue that tobacco use is not suitable with getting a good night’s sleep. Alcohol is also a bad option for those going through the menopause.
The issues of menopause and insomnia will at least pass with time, and if you have had no sleeping problems in the time prior to the menopause, there is every reason to believe that you will go back to normal when it has concluded.
Your sleep behaviour may never be the exact same as they were, as getting older is one of the things that can affect them, but they should become stable at a level which is acceptable for the body which has now finished the menopause. You should find it easy to carry on the habits which will have helped with the menopause and insomnia.
Psychological distress caused by these changes in life can result in insomnia in women. Fluctuations in female hormones play a major role in insomnia in women over their lifetimes. This insomnia is usually temporary.
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After the birth of baby
For a long period of time after delivery, most women remain highly sensitive to even the smallest noises produced by the infant, which causes them to wake easily. Women who have had children sleep less efficiently or deeply than women who have not had children. Most women follow this pattern of high sensitivity long after the children have grown.
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Women are more prone to Depression and Anxiety
Women are at higher risk than men are for depression and anxiety, which are known risk factors for insomnia. In fact, some researchers believe that this is a main reason for the gender differences in insomnia.
The reason for this higher risk may be the social setup and conditions of a society. If you’re a single working women, you will spend the least amount of time in bed. The pressures and worries at office and home may lead to insomnia.
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Insomnia and Your Lifestyle
Your lifestyle can also affect your sleep pattern. If you are spending too much time on socializing with your friends instead of going to bed at the right time, than that could be the primary reason of your sleeplessness or insomnia.
Housewives or stay-at-moms may also experience problems with sleeping. The reasons could be kids or the dog – disturbing at night. Another reason could be lack of leisure activities in the evening hours. If you are spending your evening mostly on kids and other activities at home, that could lead to sleep problems or insomnia.
Working women, married and having school-aged children are at higher risk of problems related to sleep. Overloaded with work and family obligations, you may have little time to exercise, relax or spending your time on leisure and recreation activities.
Modern lifestyles are a major cause of insomnia in women these days.
Solution for Insomnia in Women
The most important thing you can do to improve your sleep is by making sleep a priority.
Keep a sleep diary. Keeping a sleep diary can help you in finding the exact cause of insomnia. Keep a diary with you whenever you go to sleep and note down the time you went to bed, the number of times you got up during the night, the first and last day of your period, any symptoms of menstruation. If you find that you are experiencing insomnia on the same day of your menstrual period every month, you can be certain that it is due to the fluctuation in hormones.
Supplement yourself with magnesium. Magnesium has a calming effect on brain and can help in preventing insomnia. Supplement your body with a good dose of magnesium everyday. Eat magnesium-rich foods like soybeans, almonds, black-eyed peas and lima beans. Take around 500 milligrams of magnesium everyday. That will help you in curing insomnia.
Keep a Check on your estrogen levels. Estrogen levels usually drops when you are in the midthirties or forties. Keep checking your estrogen levels and if your sleep diary hasn’t revealed any other possible causes of insomnia, your doctor should check the FSH levels (follicle-stimulating hormone). The FSH levels are the first indicators of menopause.
Eat foods or fruits rich in estrogens. If your FSH levels indicate premenopausal state, then add fruits and vegetables to your diet. Eat a lot of apples, carrots, cherries, oats, peas, potatoes, green beans, soybeans and sprouts, it will increase your estrogen level and prevent insomnia.
Manage Stress. Decrease your stress levels by going out on evenings and doing some recreational activities during the evening hours. Relax yourself by adopting good relaxation techniques.
Avoid sleeping pills. Avoid taking sleeping pills when you feel sleeplessness. Sleeping pills can have dangerous and harmful side effects. It is highly recommended to go for some natural treatment for insomnia.