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Keeping your eyes closed to stay “foggy” (as if that would help – you think it will, and you continue closing your eyes even though you know you have maybe a 50/50 chance of being able to fall back asleep). Ok, I’m joking here, but maybe, just maybe you get woken up by a hot flash??? And let’s not forget our buddy, Anxiety, who will remind you that you’ve forgotten about her.

According to the National Sleep Foundation

“Menopause is a time of major hormonal, physical and psychological change for women although menopausal symptoms vary from woman to woman. During the perimenopause or transition phase, a woman’s ovaries gradually (over several years) decrease production of estrogen and progesterone. If a woman has her ovaries surgically removed (oophorectomy), periods end abruptly and menopausal symptoms become more severe. One year after menstrual periods have stopped, a woman reaches menopause, on average around the age of 50. From peri-menopause to post-menopause, women report the most sleeping problems. Most notably, these include hot flashes, mood disorders, insomnia and sleep-disordered breathing. Sleep problems are often accompanied by depression and anxiety. Generally, post-menopausal women are less satisfied with their sleep and as many as 61% report insomnia symptoms.” Why is it in this glorious age group, our 40’s-60’s (even older), sleep is a long lost loved one? How did we get here? I know we both know how we got here. LIFE is how we got here. But why us, the women? Have you ever met a man with our issues? My husband, don’t know how he does it, he can be completely wide awake, but as soon as he lays his head on his “pilly,” he’s OUT COLD. Like I’m talking as his head is slowly making its way down to the pillow I KNOW if I want any kind of chatting, I gotta’ make it quick. Seriously. But me, no…. I watch a little TV, something mildly interesting, mildly boring. I did watch Chopped on the Food Network, but I got SO into the competition, I couldn’t get tired enough to fall asleep. Then I went onto ID Investigation Discovery. Anything with a murder mystery – right up my alley. It was perfect. Just enough interest, yet just enough boring. After a few weeks, my husband said it was hard for him to fall asleep listening to a murder unraveling… so now I jump from one program to another. But just this week I was speaking with my chiropractor, mentioning how I never got good sleep. He asked if I was having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. Both. He said it was the right side of my brain that was still working – that I should use my left side. Easy peasy. He explained that all I had to do was a little math. Yep, crappy math. He said to take any three numbers and multiply them by any three numbers. Didn’t matter what they were. (ex. 1, 2, 3 x 3, 2, 1) Try that a few times. Guess what I have been doing this week? Math problems. And you know what? It really does work!    ]]>