Insomnia during Menopause is not only one of the most annoying symptoms of Menopause, but today it is also recognised as one of the more serious symptoms.

Insomnia during Menopause is a direct result of the changing and fluctuating hormones. However, it can be aggravated by psychological factors like stress, anxiety and depression, all of which may be closely related to one another. To make matters even worse, the physical problems like hot flushes can have a serious impact on a woman's sleep. An overactive bladder, which may result in a few trips to the washroom during the night, will cause even more disruption of her sleeping patern..

Other contributing factors may be:

• Underlying medical conditions - any physical condition that is accompanied by physical pain or discomfort.
• Prescription drugs - some are notorious for causing insomnia. Certain hypertension drugs, antidepressants, corticosteroids, decongestants and weight loss products may fall into this category.

Insomnia may involve one or all of the following problems:

• Having difficulty falling asleep
• Falling asleep only to wake up a couple of hours later, and then unable to go back to sleep again.
• Waking up several times during the night, every time taking about half an hour or more to get back to sleep again.

The question now is: why is it regarded as a serious disorder?

Because of the lack of restorative sleep the ongoing sleep deprivation can lead to problems like a weakened immune system, hypertension, heart problems and even diabetes. Overall it will lead to a poor quality of life.

Chronic sleep disturbances cause daytime fatigue and sleepiness, inability to focus and concentrate, all of which may contribute to irritability, anxiety and depression.

Well, you might argue that you have insomnia in spite of the abscence of any contributing factors, and even with practising sound sleep hygiene. The answer to that is that insomnia during Menopause is a phenomenon not easily explained. Researchers are not quite sure why it occurs, but they do recognise it as a unique symptom of Menopause. A symptom that should be treated in a timely manner, before it leads to more serious complications.

In my eBook "Menopause Simplified" you will learn about all the existing treatments and techniques on how to treat insomnia. If you suffer from this very common problem the time is now to act and do something about it.

Christa Muller