Sleep affects almost every part of your health, from your mood and memory to your appetite and blood sugar. Yet many women regularly get less than they need. Women are more likely than men to have insomnia, which means trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep.
How Much Sleep Do You Need?
Most adults need between seven and nine hours a night. Needs vary, and the best guide is how you feel during the day. If you regularly feel tired or rely on caffeine to get through the day, you may not be getting enough good-quality sleep.
How Hormones Affect Sleep
Your cycle. Many women sleep less well in the days before their period, when hormone levels fall. Period pain and heavy bleeding can also disturb sleep.
Pregnancy and after birth. Discomfort and needing to pass urine more often make sleep harder in pregnancy, and broken nights with a new baby are almost universal.
Perimenopause and menopause. Sleep problems are among the most common symptoms. Night sweats can wake you, and falling levels of progesterone, a hormone with a calming effect, can make sleep lighter. Many women find themselves waking in the early hours.
Sleep Apnoea in Women
Obstructive sleep apnoea is a condition where the airway repeatedly narrows or closes during sleep, briefly stopping your breathing. It is often thought of as a male condition, but it becomes much more common in women after menopause. In women it may not cause loud snoring. Instead, it can show up as tiredness, morning headaches, waking often or low mood. If you have these signs, ask your doctor about a sleep study.
What Helps
Keep a regular schedule. Going to bed and getting up at similar times every day, including weekends, helps set your body clock.
Get daylight in the morning. Natural light early in the day helps your body know when to feel awake and when to feel sleepy.
Wind down. Give yourself time to relax before bed, away from work emails and bright screens.
Watch caffeine and alcohol. Caffeine can stay in your body for many hours, so avoid it after lunchtime if you struggle to sleep. Alcohol may help you fall asleep but disturbs sleep later in the night.
Keep your bedroom cool and dark. A cool room is especially helpful if you have night sweats.
Get up if you cannot sleep. If you have been lying awake for what feels like more than 20 minutes, get up and do something calm in dim light until you feel sleepy. This helps your brain link bed with sleep rather than with lying awake.
Treatment for Insomnia
If sleep problems last for three months or more, the recommended first treatment is cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia, known as CBT-I. It is a structured programme that changes the habits and thoughts that keep insomnia going. It works well for many women, and its effects last longer than sleeping tablets. It is available with a therapist or through guided online programmes.
Sleeping tablets can help in the short term, but many can become habit-forming and are usually only used briefly. Melatonin, a hormone that helps regulate your body clock, can help with jet lag and certain body clock problems, but it has only a small effect on insomnia. Evidence for magnesium and herbal sleep remedies is limited.
If menopause symptoms are disturbing your sleep, treating them, for example with menopause hormone therapy, often improves sleep too.
Speak to your doctor if poor sleep is affecting your daily life, or if you are very sleepy during the day. Good sleep is a real foundation for your health, and most sleep problems can be improved.