“Certain types of sound, such as white noise or pink noise, can help to promote relaxation and sleep,” notes Dr. The second: Cuing up the right sounds can lull you into dreamland. Harris. That includes things like wind rattling your windows or an errant dog bark. “Sleep sounds can help improve sleep quality by masking any background noise during the night, since noise can interfere with sleep,” explains Dr. The first: It blocks out distracting noise that can make it difficult to doze off.

Tapping into the power of sound for a solid night’s rest works in two key ways. Fortunately, no matter what’s keeping you up at night, there are drug-free sleep remedies that can help. In fact, Certified Menopause Practitioner Barbara DePree, MD says research suggests 20% of women develop the condition during menopause, and up to 67% of post-menopausal women have sleep apnea. What’s more, postmenopausal women are more likely to develop sleep apnea, a condition in which your breathing starts and stops throughout the night. Why? Women experience difficult-to-manage symptoms - such as irritability, weight gain and thinning hair - that can leave them feeling blue. (Click through to learn how to cure female bladder problems and hot flashes that can sap your sleep.)ĭepression and anxiety, both potent sleep disruptors, are also more prevalent during menopause. This can trigger symptoms like hot flashes, night sweats and nocturia (frequent trips to the bathroom during the night) that disrupt sleep. In women, that’s often because of the hormonal fluctuations that occur before, during and after menopause.

Highwaystarz-Photography/Getty Why women have trouble sleepingĪlmost anyone can get insomnia, but experts have noticed two trends: “It’s more common in women than in men, and the risk of experiencing insomnia increases with age,” notes Dr. As their effectiveness wanes over time, you’ll need to take more to get the same benefit. In addition to their potential side effects (including strange dreams, sleepwalking and next-day grogginess), it’s easy to build up a tolerance to these medications. “While the medication may work temporarily, our research has found that long-term use doesn’t have a clear benefit.” “I often see women who start with a week’s supply of sleep medication, but a year later, they’re still taking them nightly,” he reveals. The biggest hitch: they don’t provide much benefit for middle-aged women when used long-term, says Daniel Hal Solomon, MD, of Harvard Medical School. Over-the-counter and prescription sleep aids may seem like an easy fix, but they come with drawbacks. And while it’s easy to diagnose, insomnia is far less easy to treat. According to a study in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, roughly 33% of adults suffer from some degree of insomnia, though the researchers note that other studies have put that number as high as 60%. “Insomnia is a common sleep disorder that is characterized by difficulty falling and/or staying asleep that affects millions of people worldwide,” says Shelby Harris, PsyD, Director of Sleep Health at Sleepopolis. Here, discover how this works and how it helped one woman overcome her insomnia for good.

Now, researchers are pointing to a new form of sound therapy that might help: Using binaural beats for sleep. And chances are, most of them have tried dozens of strategies to catch more Zzz’s over the years. Indeed, millions of women spend their nights staring at the ceiling unable to doze off, restlessly tossing and turning, or awaking well before their alarm. And yet sound, restful sleep evades so many of us. Sleeping is as crucial to our health as eating and breathing.

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