EASY TIPS TO SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE SLEEP ISSUES & STRESS DURING MENOPAUSE
4 videos • 7 views • by Kate Usher - The Menopause Coach If you are Menopausal, it’s very likely you will have had problems with either sleep or stress at some point. Both are very common and can create havoc across all your other symptoms and life in general. In this series I am joined by the incredible Clarissa Kristjansson. She is an internationally recognized Menopause coach and mentor. A neuroscientist and former corporate leader in 2013 Clarissa suffered burnout during her own perimenopause that set her on a different path. Her mission is to empower women through this transformational life stage. She helps women connect the dots between their menopause experiences, from insomnia, to anxiety, weight gain and low moods, to stress. She is the host of the Thriving Thru Menopause podcast, a keynote and virtual speaker and international best-selling author of The Mindful Menopause. The series is made up of four videos that work as two pairs, the first (this one) is about sleep, divided into basic and advanced and then the second pair is about stress, again basic and advanced. As sleep issues are so common (night sweats and insomnia) what is causing it? Unsurprisingly oestrogen is at fault and as our oestrogen levels oscillate and decline it impacts the oestrogen receptors in our body including those in our brain, as your brain controls your sleep it is no wonder then that it is impacted. Stress is something that most of us have to deal with at some point in our lives however during Menopause we need to pay particular attention to it due to our changing hormones. The drop in progesterone which has a calming and soothing effect and oestrogen which sparks stress off in our brains as it fluctuates and declines means that we are no longer protected against the impact of stress. In fact the symptoms of perimenopause and stress are quite often the same and together they will amplify the impact of each other. To manage it you have to develop stress resiliency and bandwidth as you no longer have the ability to do this naturally. How does stress impact us? Put on weight, eat poorly and reach for the biscuit barrel. Our brains are calling for energy and sugar is the quickest way to deliver that. If you already suffer from low moods or anxiety, studies show the changes in hormones can mean that you become more susceptible to stress, anxiety and depression. We are unprepared for the change that we are about to experience. Often those fine balancing activities that our body has been doing in background are suddenly removed and we need to learn a new way of balancing, except this time it will need to be conscious.