Sleep in menopause. Why poor sleep cannot be treated the same way.

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CONTENTS

Chapter 1. Before treating insomnia, let's figure out why it specifically happened to you

Chapter 2. What is normal sleep and why do we sleep at all?

Chapter 3. What kind of sleep is considered normal?

Chapter 4. Why don't we sleep the same way all night?

Chapter 5. Why do we need to know about sleep cycles?

Chapter 6. Why do we wake up in the middle of the night?

Chapter 7. What helps improve sleep?

Chapter 8. Why the harder you try to fall asleep, the longer you stay awake

Chapter 9. How to re-teach your brain to sleep

Chapter 10. Why doesn't sleep recover in three days?

Chapter 11. When should insomnia be treated with medication, and when is it better not to start with pills?

Chapter 12. Why a doctor asks questions first and then prescribes medication

Chapter 13. Melatonin. Why doesn't it help everyone?

Chapter 14. How to take melatonin properly

Chapter 15. Sleeping pills. Is it true that they are addictive?

Chapter 16. What kind of sleeping pills exist today?

Chapter 17. What medications are prescribed for insomnia and what to expect from them

Chapter 18. How to properly discontinue sleeping pills?

Chapter 19. Can psychologists cure insomnia?

Chapter 20. Why should the bed only be associated with sleep?

Chapter 21. Why can our thoughts prevent us from sleeping?

Chapter 22. How to evaluate your sleep on your own

Chapter 23. Apple Watch, Oura Ring, Samsung Galaxy Watch, and other gadgets. Can you trust them?

Chapter 24. What indicators in the Apple Watch, Oura Ring, Samsung Galaxy Watch, and other gadgets should you pay attention to?

Chapter 25. When watches start interfering with sleep. What is orthosomnia?

Chapter 26. Sleep diary. Why is it needed if we already have a watch or ring?

Chapter 27. When is it time to see a doctor?

Chapter 28. What examinations are needed and which doctor should you consult?

Chapter 29. What do we know about treating insomnia today?

Instead of a conclusion.

Before treating insomnia, let's figure out why it happened specifically to you.

Most books on insomnia begin with advice.

I want to start this book with a question.

Why would two forty-five-year-old women complaining of sleep disturbances require completely different treatments?

You might ask:

— How so, Natasha? The complaint is the same, the age is the same. Therefore, the treatment should be the same.

But it’s not that simple.

When a woman comes to my office and says:

— Doctor, I don't sleep well.

For me, as a doctor, that means absolutely nothing. It is impossible to understand what is happening from this phrase alone, which means it is impossible to choose a treatment.

Therefore, I always ask the next question:

— What exactly do you mean when you say, "I don't sleep well"?

Do you have trouble falling asleep?

Do you wake up several times a night?

Do you wake up too early in the morning and can't fall back asleep?

Do you sleep for eight hours but wake up feeling unrefreshed?

Or does your husband wake you up at night because you snore or stop breathing in your sleep?

These are completely different situations. And their causes will be completely different as well.

Until a doctor gets the answers to these questions, a complaint of sleep disturbance is just a starting point. It only says that a problem exists. But it says nothing about why it appeared.

This is where, in my opinion, one of the most common mistakes is made. We start looking for treatment very quickly and almost never ask ourselves the question:

What exactly are we trying to treat right now?

Go online, and you will see dozens of tips.

Take magnesium.

Take melatonin.

Don't use your phone before bed, or turn on the screen's night mode.

Buy a weighted blanket.

Try meditation.

If one remedy doesn't help, try the next one.

If magnesium citrate didn't help, try glycinate.

If melatonin didn't help, change the dosage or buy another one.

We responsibly, step by step, go through ready-made solutions, hoping that one of them will finally help us. Sometimes this happens. But not because we found the cause of the sleep disturbance, but because we stumbled upon it by accident.

The main question remains unanswered all this time.

Why did your sleep become disturbed?

What has changed in your body or your life?

What mechanism is behind this complaint?

Only by answering these questions can we talk about a treatment that will truly work for you.

There is another reason why I decided to write this book. Over the years of my work, I have understood one simple thing. Even the most experienced doctor doesn't live with you. They don't know how many times you woke up last night. They don't know what happened in the week before the insomnia appeared.

Perhaps you had a difficult period at work or constant arguments with your husband. Perhaps your child is applying to university or has started seeing a new boyfriend.

The doctor doesn't know that after a glass of wine, you almost always wake up around three in the morning. And the most interesting thing is that most often you don't know this either, because you have never looked for such a connection before.

They don't know that after an evening walk, conversely, you fall asleep faster. And it’s very good if you have already managed to notice this about yourself. Only you know this part of your life, provided that you have started thinking about it.

That is precisely why a good doctor asks questions, and a good patient helps find the answers.

I really want you to start understanding your body better after reading this book. Not at all so that you can diagnose yourself or start treating yourself without a doctor. But to notice the patterns.

When did your sleep first get disturbed?

What changed shortly before that?

After which events do I feel worse?

What, on the contrary, helps me sleep better and feel better?

These observations can become the missing details that will help your doctor make the correct diagnosis, and therefore, choose the right treatment.

This book will not replace a doctor's consultation.

But I really want you to come to an appointment differently after reading it. Not just with the words:

— Doctor, I don't sleep well.

But with an understanding of exactly how your sleep was disturbed, when it started, what preceded it, and what you have already managed to notice. Believe me, for a doctor, this is a huge help.

Now imagine that you are driving a car. Suddenly, a light turns on on the dashboard. The first thing we do is look at what exactly happened.

If it’s a symbol indicating that fuel is running low, we understand: it's time to look for a gas station. We don't cover this light with tape and pretend that nothing happened.

The light is not the problem. It is giving us important information.

But sometimes a "Check Engine" light comes on on the dashboard. And that is a completely different situation. We understand that a malfunction has occurred in one of the car's systems. Which one exactly, we don't know yet.

But we don't start filling the gas tank to the brim in the hope that the light will go out. We go to a service station because we first want to understand what exactly happened.

The same thing happens with sleep disturbances. Sometimes the cause turns out to be very simple. For example, for several days in a row, you went to bed late, drank coffee in the evening, or just haven't been getting enough sleep for a long time. In such a situation, it is enough to remove the cause, fix your routine, and sleep will return to normal.

But sometimes it is different.

The cause is not on the surface. Then a more careful search will be needed, possibly additional examinations and a consultation with a specialist.

In both situations, a sleep disturbance is, first and foremost, information. That same light on the dashboard. A signal from the body that needs to be correctly understood.

That is why we will not start this book with treatment.

We will start with something else.

We will try to learn how to read the signals that our body sends.

Because the better we understand these signals, the easier it is to find the real cause of the problem. And the more likely it is that the treatment will actually help.