Insomnia In Women

Monthly Cycles or Lack Thereof Hits Sleep Hard…The Land of Nod Isn’t Easy for Females to Find

Dr. David W. Sparks

You toss. You turn. You can’t get comfortable. Mind races. Change your position again…and again. Even though your bed is comfortable, everything seems wrong because you’re so wired up. One thing you do know is…it’s not going to be easy to drift off. You’re in for a long wait before the sacrament of sleep.

And in the morning, you’ll feel awful, exhausted, drained, no-energy. Think menstruation, menopause, post-menopause. This is the battle of Insomnia and Women…it’s all part of the territory wherein female hormones dictate a lot about the way women sleep.

This Dear Lady is the demon known as insomnia, and it hits women twice as often as it does men since women have such dramatic fluctuations in types and levels of hormones dependant on the calendar in terms of time of the month and/or number of years.

But first things first. An inability to fall asleep easily or inability to stay asleep can come around once or twice a week, or maybe more often. Some women due to chronic pain such as fibromyalgia or arthritis, or due to mood disorders such as depression, stress or anxiety have insomnia every night of their lives. Here’s an irony: it’s self fulfilling and self-propelling. Got pain? It makes it difficult to sleep. Poor sleep? Exacerbates pain. Same thing with mood disorders. It’s depressing to think that when you can’t sleep well that your depression will get worse which makes it even more difficult to sleep. This is a run on sentences and a run of horrible luck. However, if you’re sleeping well now, just wait! If you’re a woman you in all likelihood will go through significant insomnia in your lifetime since experts say, virtually every woman will experience some degree of chronic sleeplessness.

The Cycle of Sleeplessness

Let us get back to a monthly phenomenon that women face. The problems and challenges accompanying menstruation are not just restricted to cramps, flow and moods. That special problem once a month also produces difficulties with sleep. Like clockwork for some women, insomnia occurs just before they menstruate. Irrespective of the condition, PMS, menopause replete with hot flashes, or post-menopause, insomnia is among the major complaints.

Suzanne Trupin, M.D., head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Urbana-Champaign is an expert on the effects that hormones have on women's bodies. She suggests that because estrogen influences the production of brain chemicals that keep you alert and progesterone makes you sleepy, doctors believe that hormonal fluctuations can cause a transient insomnia, which comes and goes with the ebb and flow of your hormones.

What Can Be Done About Sleeplessness?

There are a number of just common sense things that women can do in order to combat insomnia. These do not involve drugs or medications nor do they demand that women change the way in which they conduct their lives. A lot of the approach to combating insomnia just means doing simple routines.

Keep a sleep diary. Use a bedside notebook so that you can record your bedtime activities: time you went to bed, the number of times you awakened during the night, the number of times you got up, the first and last day of your period, any menstrual symptoms or difficulties, whether you were sleepy the next day and whether you experienced any particularly stressful events.

Anyone who is up at night because of problems, concerns, mind chatter that make it difficult to shut out the world and ready the mind for sleep can and should learn the actual scientific instructions used by psychologists and therapists.

If you think you don’t need outside interference telling you to relax, consider that 70-to 80-percent of people suffering from chronic insomnia are cured by non-drug methods of cognitive behavioral therapies. In one study, 75% of those who had been taking drugs to sleep at night were able to stop or reduce their use after learning relaxation techniques. Studies show that after six to ten weeks, people with insomnia who used behavioral methods that include sleep restriction, sleep hygiene, and relaxation can achieve between a 53% and a 75% reduction in the time taken to fall asleep and 40% fewer awakenings after sleep. So, if you have yet to find a solution to your sleeplessness….relax. It’s all right here.

“Take a Deep Breath”

Beyond breathing in and out, relaxation therapies encompass a wide range of choices. For some people, taking deep breaths is uncomfortable. For others, their day is so full that just releasing a few moments to set up and “force” relaxation is enough to fill their minds with even more anxious thoughts. To be honest, people who suffer insomnia are often naturally mildly anxious. They tend to describe themselves as tense or as prone to worrying. They are perfectionists. Often they use their nervous energy in productive ways, but may overdo it and cause stress.

Sleep is wrongly expected to make up for an undisciplined or overly taxing daytime lifestyle. People who fit this mold feel that if they could only sleep better, if they could only fall right smack asleep the minute they hit the pillow, they would better be able to deal with work, responsibilities and so on. That’s placing a far too great expectation on sleep! The real problem may lie in the need for better time management during the day or in finding ways to unburden the work load or relationship problems. Insomnia can just as well be a symptom as a cause of chronic stress.

The first thing everyone should learn is how to breathe properly. Yes, I know, the doctor taught you how on the day you were born by slapping you across the backside and making you scream out. Well, there’s a whole lot more to it. And when you practice these steps for a few days, you’ll begin to feel the magic of a breath well taken. Breathing not only sustains life, it also cleanses and rejuvenates when activated at full potential.

Here’s how:

Lie flat on your back, or stand up straight, whichever feels more comfortable. You may also sit up straight in a chair.
Place your hand on your stomach area.
Breathe as you normally do. Does your hand rise with each breath or does your chest area?
If you are breathing properly, your stomach area must rise and fall as your diaphragm expands.
To begin breathing correctly, slowly inhale through your nosewhile mentally counting to five. Try to push your hand up withyour stomach while doing this.
Hold the breath for another count of five.
Exhale slowly through your mouth while counting to five. Try to push down on your stomach with your hand.
Repeat this process for five minutes.
If this breathing exercise causes you to feel panic, or you have heart palpitations, just do it for as long as you are able.
Repeat this exercise, increasing the total time you are able to do it for up to five minutes twice a day.

If you practice this exercise routinely, you will soon be able to naturally breathe more deeply throughout your day. Not only willit give you more energy, but you can also use it when you feel stressedor anxious. Breathing properly is the fastest way to feel relief.

Once you master deep breathing, take it a step further. If youare stressed at work during the day, you can do the following exercises(called progressive relaxation) at your desk without drawing too muchattention.

As you breathe in, tense a group of muscles for the full count of five. Start with your feet and work your way up.
Release the hold. Let your feet fall gently back. Feel the relaxation. Think about how it feels compared to whenyou tensed the muscles. Relax for a count of five.
Next, tense your thigh muscles as hard as you can. Makesure you are still sitting up straight in your chair (if you are atwork).
Relax the muscles for a count of five.
Tighten your abdominal muscles and hold for a count of five. Release for five.
Tense your arm and hand muscles by squeezing you hands into fists as hard as you can. Hold for five, and release for five.
Tighten your upper back by pushing your shoulders back as if youare trying to touch your shoulder blades together. Hold for five,release for five.
Tighten your neck first by gently moving your head back as if youwere looking at the ceiling. Hold for five, relax for five. Then, gently drop your head forward and hold for five, relax for five.
Tense your shoulders by raising them towards your ears as if shrugging and hold for five, relax for five.
Tighten your face muscles. First open your mouth wide andhold for five, relax for five. Then, raise your eyebrows up highand hold for five, relax for five. Finally, clench your eyestightly shut and hold for five, relax (with eyes gently closed) forfive.
Finish the exercise by breathing in slowly through your nosecounting to five. Hold the breath for a count of five and thenbreathe out slowing, counting to five. Repeat this last part fourtimes.

Also don’t forget to work out. Exercise is compensatory for anyone suffering from sleeplessness. And you don’t have to become a marathoner or mountain climber. Walking has a marvelous way of calming the mind. If you can do 30 minutes a day, go for it. If you can’t, then work your way up very gradually. You’ll enjoy what it does for your sleep and you’ll love what it does for muscle tone and waistline.

This series of suggestions is not a magic formula, just a list of some sensible things you can do to take on insomnia and win. There are also some very valuable behavioral modification techniques available on the web site that are a sure-fire cure for insomnia if you take them seriously.

In a few weeks we will be opening up a premium section in our web site entitled Actions Steps for Better Sleep and A Healthier Life. These steps incorporate some simple behavioral modification techniques to help solve your problems with insomnia along with some positive steps that you can take toward improving your wellness. We have some wonderful suggestions for diet and exercise. Think of this program as an "easy boot camp where you learn to go to war against insomnia". By the way, you can get this program for free with your purchase of one of my audiobooks entitled "Better Sleep in 7 Days".

Make sure you sign up in the Action Steps section and I will send you a sample of both the first day of Actions Steps for Better Sleep and A Healthier Life and Day 1 of The Better Sleep in 7 Days audiobook. We value your privacy and will not pass along your email address to anyone.

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