...but the timing and duration of these transitional stages and associated symptoms vary greatly between women and cannot be easily predicted. What we do know though, is that it can have a huge impact on your sleep which further exacerbates symptoms…
Menopause and Sleep
Half of the population will experience the Menopause...
What are the main sleep issues during menopause?
• Frequent awakenings (up to 10-14 in a night) and poorer sleep quality overall have been associated with declining oestrogen (estradiol) and increasing rate of change in FSH levels (11)
• Hot flashes are a major factor in the increased prevalence of insomnia disorders in midlife women
• Restless Legs 69% of individuals with Restless leg syndrome (RLS) retrospectively reported a worsening of their symptoms after menopause.
• Anxiety Increased symptoms of anxiety making falling asleep harder
How does Menopause effect sleep?
Sleep disturbances, especially difficulty maintaining sleep, escalates as women go through the menopause transition
Depression increases in prevalence as women approach menopause. It may contribute to poor sleep and/or develop secondarily to disrupted sleep, creating a sleep/depression cycle that can be difficult to break
The prevalence of sleep-disordered breathing increases postmenopause along with the likelihood or snoring and/or sleep apnea further disrupting sleep
69% of individuals with Restless leg syndrome (RLS) retrospectively reported a worsening of their symptoms after menopause.
How can Philips Sleep Headphones help?
'Brilliant device for menopausal women who have difficulty going back to sleep'
• Frequent awakenings? Adaptive audio senses you’ve woken up and gently lulls you back to sleep without having to pick up your phone
• Anxious thoughts? Use our audio or your own to create a calming Kokoon to drift off to
• Snoring partner? Our specially designed earbuds combined with ambient audio masks external sounds for a peaceful night’s sleep
• Get comfortable! Our headphones are designed solely for sleeping, small, ergonically designed and perfect for all sleeping positions
Insomnia and Menopause
Many women experience an increase in insomnia symptoms during the menopause transition and these symptoms are severe, persistent, and affect daytime functioning in about 25% of women, qualifying them for a diagnosis of insomnia disorder.
31.8% of perimenopausal and postmenopausal women reported that their insomnia was related to menopause, with difficulty maintaining sleep being the predominant complaint.
Women with insomnia disorder that developed in the menopause transition have more in-bed wakefulness and awakenings, reduced sleeping time, and lower sleep efficiency compared with controls. With about 50% of insomnia sufferers having fewer than 6 hours of sleep.
FREE year’s premium access to the Kokoon App with every pair
With a library of relaxing soundscapes and meditations, our users love that they can also listen to their own favourite audio and can layer their tracks with ours to create their own sleepscapes
References:
Santoro, N., 2005. The menopausal transition. The American journal of medicine, 118(12), pp.8-13. Lobo, R.A., Kelsey, J. and Marcus, R. eds., 2000. Menopause: biology and pathobiology. Academic press. Harlow, S.D., Gass, M., Hall, J.E., Lobo, R., Maki, P., Rebar, R.W., Sherman, S., Sluss, P.M., De Villiers, T.J. and STRAW+ 10 Collaborative Group, 2012. Executive summary of the Stages of Reproductive Aging Workshop+ 10: addressing the unfinished agenda of staging reproductive aging. Climacteric, 15(2), pp.105-114. Freedman, R.R., 2005. Hot flashes: behavioral treatments, mechanisms, and relation to sleep. The American journal of medicine, 118(12), pp.124-130. Avis, N.E., Crawford, S.L., Greendale, G., Bromberger, J.T., Everson-Rose, S.A., Gold, E.B., Hess, R., Joffe, H., Kravitz, H.M., Tepper, P.G. and Thurston, R.C., 2015. Duration of menopausal vasomotor symptoms over the menopause transition. JAMA internal medicine, 175(4), pp.531-539. Gallicchio, L., Whiteman, M.K., Tomic, D., Miller, K.P., Langenberg, P. and Flaws, J.A., 2006. Type of menopause, patterns of hormone therapy use, and hot flashes. Fertility and sterility, 85(5), pp.1432-1440. Berecki-Gisolf, J., Begum, N. and Dobson, A.J., 2009. Symptoms reported by women in midlife: menopausal transition or aging?. Menopause, 16(5), pp.1021-1029. Kravitz, H.M., Zhao, X., Bromberger, J.T., Gold, E.B., Hall, M.H., Matthews, K.A. and Sowers, M.R., 2008. Sleep disturbance during the menopausal transition in a multi-ethnic community sample of women. Sleep, 31(7), pp.979-990. Xu, Q. and Lang, C.P., 2014. Examining the relationship between subjective sleep disturbance and menopause: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Menopause, 21(12), pp.1301-1318. Berecki-Gisolf, J., Begum, N. and Dobson, A.J., 2009. Symptoms reported by women in midlife: menopausal transition or aging?. Menopause, 16(5), pp.1021-1029. Sowers, M.F., Zheng, H., Kravitz, H.M., Matthews, K., Bromberger, J.T., Gold, E.B., Owens, J., Consens, F. and Hall, M., 2008. Sex steroid hormone profiles are related to sleep measures from polysomnography and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Sleep, 31(10), pp.1339-1349. Kravitz, H.M., Janssen, I., Bromberger, J.T., Matthews, K.A., Hall, M.H., Ruppert, K. and Joffe, H., 2017. Sleep trajectories before and after the final menstrual period in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN). Current sleep medicine reports, 3, pp.235-250. Sassoon, S.A., de Zambotti, M., Colrain, I.M. and Baker, F.C., 2014. Association between personality traits and DSM-IV diagnosis of insomnia in perimenopausal women: insomnia and personality in perimenopause. Menopause (New York, NY), 21(6), p.602. Cho, N.Y., Kim, S., Nowakowski, S., Shin, C. and Suh, S., 2019. Sleep disturbance in women who undergo surgical menopause compared with women who experience natural menopause. Menopause, 26(4), pp.357-364. Toffol, E., Kalleinen, N., Haukka, J., Vakkuri, O., Partonen, T. and Polo-Kantola, P., 2014. The effect of hormone therapy on serum melatonin concentrations in premenopausal and postmenopausal women: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Maturitas, 77(4), pp.361-369. Ohayon, M.M., 2006. Severe hot flashes are associated with chronic insomnia. Archives of internal medicine, 166(12), pp.1262-1268. Mirer, A.G., Young, T., Palta, M., Benca, R.M., Rasmuson, A. and Peppard, P.E., 2017. Sleep-disordered breathing and the menopausal transition among participants in the Sleep in Midlife Women Study. Menopause (New York, NY), 24(2), p.157.