If you’ve found yourself lying awake at 3am wondering what on earth has happened to your sleep, you’re certainly not alone.
For many women, disrupted sleep is one of the very first signs that something is changing hormonally. You may fall asleep without any problems but wake in the early hours unable to switch your brain off. Perhaps you’re waking drenched in sweat, tossing and turning, or simply feeling exhausted despite spending eight hours in bed.
And if you’ve started blaming yourself, thinking you’re stressed, doing something wrong or just getting older, I want to reassure you that there are real reasons why sleep becomes more challenging in midlife.
Hormones play a huge role
Oestrogen and progesterone do far more than regulate your periods, and one of the earliest hormonal changes in perimenopause is often a decline in progesterone.
Progesterone is sometimes referred to as our “calming hormone” because it has a naturally soothing effect on the brain and can help us drift off to sleep more easily. As progesterone levels begin to fluctuate and decline, many women notice they become lighter sleepers, wake more frequently during the night or struggle to switch their busy minds off.
Later on, falling oestrogen levels can affect body temperature regulation, making hot flushes and night sweats more common. Even if you don’t wake fully, these changes can disrupt the deeper stages of sleep, leaving you feeling exhausted despite spending enough hours in bed.
The dreaded 3am wake-up call
One of the most common things I hear from women is, “I wake at 3am and can’t get back to sleep.”
This can happen for lots of reasons: Hormonal fluctuations, hot flushes, anxiety, stress hormones, drop in blood sugar levels, alcohol, caffeine and simply being in this busy stage of life …which makes it hard to pinpoint the actual cause.
And once you’re awake, your brain often decides that 3am is the perfect time to think about work, ageing parents, children, finances, or that awkward conversation you had fifteen years ago!
Sound familiar?
It’s not just hormones
Midlife is busy. Really busy.
Many of us are juggling work, children, ageing parents, relationships and the endless mental load that comes with trying to keep everything ticking over. Add poor sleep to the mix and it can quickly become a vicious cycle.
When we’re tired, we feel more stressed. Stress makes sleep harder. Poor sleep affects our mood, cravings, motivation and energy levels, which in turn makes everything else feel harder too.
Why sleep matters so much
Sleep deprivation is no joke.
For many of us we’re going straight from the sleepless nights of motherhood into the sleepless nights of perimenopause. We’re having children later, juggling careers, looking after ageing parents and trying to keep everyone else’s lives running smoothly.
No wonder we’re exhausted.
Poor sleep affects far more than simply feeling a bit groggy the next day.
Sleep impacts every system in the body. It affects our mood, memory, concentration, energy, appetite, blood sugar control, muscle recovery, heart health and immune system. Poor sleep can make anxiety feel worse, increase cravings for sugary foods and leave us feeling overwhelmed by things that normally wouldn’t bother us.
Over time, chronic sleep deprivation may also affect our long-term health. This isn’t about scaring you — it’s about recognising that sleep isn’t a luxury. It’s one of the pillars of health, just as important as exercise and nutrition.
And if your sleep isn’t what it used to be, please know this isn’t something you just have to put up with.
In the next article, we’ll look at some simple, practical ways to improve your sleep and build better habits, because small changes really can make a big difference.