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Any number of physical changes in perimenopause can cause sleep disruption. As estrogen levels drop, your body struggles more with temperature and mood, which often leads to hot flashes and night sweats that make falling and staying asleep a challenge. Things like caffeine, alcohol, and spicy foods affect your sleep more than they used to. Plus, stress and shifts in your daily routine can throw off your natural sleep rhythm, making restful nights harder to come by. Many women find that these sleep disruptions affect their energy, mood, and overall quality of life, making it important to explore strategies that support better rest and wellbeing during this time. Understanding your body’s changing needs and making intentional adjustments can provide relief and help restore balance.
Here are 5 practical tips to improve sleep during perimenopause:
Keep Your Bedroom Cool and Comfortable
Hot flashes and night sweats can make it hard to stay asleep. Lowering the temperature in your bedroom, using breathable cotton or linen sheets, and wearing lightweight pajamas that wick away moisture help. These minor changes create a more comfortable environment, making it easier to sleep through the night.
Stick to a Sleep Routine: Your Secret Weapon
Try to go to bed and wake up around the same time every day, even on weekends or days off. Keeping to a standard schedule helps your body get into a rhythm and makes falling asleep easier.
Get Plenty of Daylight, Limit Screens at Night
Spend some time outside in the morning, ideally twenty to thirty minutes, to help reset your internal clock. At night, dim the lights and limit your screen time. Blue light from phones and devices can trick your brain into staying awake.
Exercise Early and Wind Down Before Bed
Exercise is great; try to get your workout in earlier in the day so it doesn’t keep you up. Manage stress during the day and avoid stressful talks or anything too stimulating close to bedtime whenever possible. Find a relaxing way to end your day, such as gentle stretches, deep breaths, or a few minutes of meditation.
Watch What and When You Eat and Drink
Skip caffeine after mid-afternoon and steer clear of heavy or spicy meals, especially before bed. Limit alcohol since it can interrupt sleep. Adding a cup of chamomile or herbal tea to your nighttime routine may help you relax.
If sleep issues persist, consult your doctor to rule out sleep apnea or other significant hormonal imbalances. Seeking help when it’s needed can make a big difference in the quality of your sleep and, in turn, your overall quality of life.
In perimenopause, being well-rested is a sought-after state. Create rituals and habits that support your body during this transitional stage and set you up for success in the next set of menopausal challenges. Prioritize sleep as a foundation for your health and well-being. Taking small, consistent steps can lead to significant improvements in how you feel every day.
Perimenopause can feel like the great unknown. It is a phase every woman expects but few note as it arrives, partly because it can sneak up on you. Gradually, everyday changes that seem unrelated at first become persistent issues. Sleep becomes restless, moods fluctuate, and weight shifts unexpectedly. What makes this time especially difficult is how little it’s been talked about openly, leaving many women unprepared for the twists and turns ahead.
You might have heard the word mentioned in passing, or been half-heartedly handed a pamphlet and a sympathetic nod. You may begin to notice changes in how you feel, experience more anxiety, fatigue, or a sense that you aren’t quite yourself. You’re often told it’s stress, or aging, or something you just have to power through. Rarely does someone say, “This could be perimenopause. Let’s talk about it.” What you likely didn’t get is a clear, compassionate, and practical guide to what it means to live through perimenopause and come out the other side with your sanity mostly intact.
The good news is that’s changing. The perimenopause and menopause space has been growing rapidly in the last few years. There are books, movies, discussion panels, experts and social media influencers focused on how little of this process is common knowledge, and the importance of bringing it into the open.
It Sneaks Up On You
Menopause advocate and author Tamsen Fadal has been candid about how little she knew before perimenopause hit. “I had no idea what was happening to me,” she shared. “I thought I was losing my mind. No one told me this was normal.”
Fadal’s book, “How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, and Feel Even Better than Before,” dives deep into her personal experience with perimenopause and menopause and offers insights on navigating the challenges of this phase with honesty and grace.
The Symptoms Are More Than Hot Flashes
Dr. Mary Claire Haver, an OB-GYN and menopause educator, has worked tirelessly to reframe how we talk about this phase in women’s lives. “Perimenopause is a hormonal transition. It’s not just about your period ending. It affects your brain, your gut, your mood, your metabolism.”
The list of symptoms is long and often minimized:
- Sleep disruptions
- Weight changes
- Mood swings
- Anxiety or depression
- Brain fog
- Dry skin and thinning hair
- Joint pain
You may experience some or all of these. What matters is being believed when you bring these issues up, and having access to support that goes beyond a dismissive “That’s normal.”
It’s Not a One-Size-Fits-All Experience
There’s no universal timeline. Some women spend five to ten years in perimenopause. Some women feel almost nothing, and others feel like they’re unraveling on an hourly basis. Hormone levels fluctuate, and your sense of normal changes with them. Finding a support network and a plan that works for you helps smooth the transition. Dr. Haver’s message resonates: “You deserve evidence-based care. You deserve answers. And you’re not alone.”
The Emotional Side Doesn’t Get Enough Attention
Perimenopause isn’t just a physical adjustment. It also affects your sense of self and relationships. “I started to doubt myself at work and at home,” said Fadal. “I was afraid to speak up. I second-guessed every decision.”
This internal loss of confidence is a rarely acknowledged part of a perimenopause journey. You’re still expected to show up, perform, and smile, but something feels off. For too long, women have been left to guess what’s going on inside their own bodies, while facing a societal expectation to keep these changes and concerns to themselves.
You Might Grieve. And That’s Okay
For many, perimenopause represents the closing of a door. You may not have wanted children, or you may have been childfree by choice or circumstance. The biological end to standard childbearing years can carry an emotional weight.
That’s where voices like Instagram’s Melani Sanders, aka @justbeingmelani, matter. Her series “The We Do Not Care” club” offers a refreshing, hilarious, and empowering take on aging, hormones, and living fully. Her message? You’re allowed to care deeply. You’re also allowed not to.
This phase can come with both grief and relief. You can let go of some expectations and still feel sadness for what never was. One emotion doesn’t necessarily cancel out the other.
Your Body May Feel Foreign
Dr. Haver talks often about the physical shift in body composition. “You’re not doing anything wrong. Your hormones are changing, and that has real effects on fat distribution, metabolism, and muscle mass.”
Knowing this doesn’t make it easy, but it offers a path forward. Nutrition adjustments, strength training, and sleep support can help, along with changing the narrative. This is not personal failure; it’s biology.
There Are Tools. Use Them
One of the most frustrating parts of perimenopause is how often women feel like they have to figure it out on their own. Hormone replacement therapy (HRT), supplements, lifestyle changes, and community support can all be part of your strategy.
As Fadal puts it, “We’re done whispering.” More women are sharing what works. Podcasts, books, and Instagram accounts are offering space for honesty and humor. Whether it’s tracking your symptoms with an app or joining a virtual support group, your care plan can be as personal as your experience.
You’re Not Alone
You don’t need to suffer quietly, in the way your mother or grandmother did. The silence around perimenopause is being shattered by women who are done waiting for permission to speak up. From advocates like Tamsen Fadal and Dr. Mary Claire Haver to creatives like @justbeingmelani, the message is: Talk about it. Ask questions and push back. This season of change can be both challenging and freeing.
There is a Better Path
I was among the many who felt perimenopause happening before I understood what it was. The confusion was enormous. Over time I found it helped me most to:
- Take a daily walk without distractions
- Follow experts like @drmaryclaire and @tamsenfadal
- Keep up with group chats with friends in the same phase
- Replace guilt with curiosity
- Say no without apology
None of this fixed everything, but it gave me back a sense of control.
Perimenopause isn’t a weakness; it’s a transition that deserves language, resources, and real conversation around the changes it brings to our lives.
References
- Fadal, Tamsen. Interview on The Today Show, 2023.
- Haver, Dr. Mary Claire. Menopause Matters podcast, 2022.
- Fadal, Tamsen. Instagram post, 2023.
- Instagram: @justbeingmelani, “The We Do Not Care Club” series, 2025.
- Fadal, Tamsen. How to Menopause: Take Charge of Your Health, Reclaim Your Life, and Feel Even Better than Before. Harper Collins, 2025
