Read the full video transcript below
Today's topic
Hello, and welcome to my weekly video blog. And today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I'm going to be talking about weird dreams and other strange things that go on whilst we're asleep.
Now this is one of the sort of stranger symptoms of the menopause, but it's amazing how many women contact us about what they're experiencing during the night and asking if it's part of the menopause.
Yes, it certainly can be.
Vivid dreams
The one thing to remember here is that when your oestrogen starts to fall, this stops you having such a deep sleep. So it's almost as if you're sleeping in a much shallower state and that means that you can wake up a lot quicker, you can wake up whilst you're dreaming, and it also takes you a lot longer to get back to sleep.
So the sorts of dreams that you can have, you can have them in vivid color. A lot of women tell me that it's almost like they're in the middle of a film studio. Everything is very bright, and they get to see extraordinary detail of all their surroundings. This can be quite a nice one if it's a relaxing dream because you just feel sort of engrossed in all the loveliness that's going on.
Action-packed dreams
You can get these action-packed dreams, and I know this was something that I tended to get on a regular basis. You would be there, and again, it's almost as if you're in a film. There'd be adventure, all sorts of things going on, but you would feel as if you were running every step, you were climbing up every mountain, you're jumping out of planes.
So you would wake up in the morning, sometimes feeling quite exhausted because you would just feel as if you were going through all the action that was in this particular dream.
Nightmares & night terrors
We can also get nightmares and night terrors, and this is the really horrible part of it. Going through the menopause, we are more anxious.
We worry more about our family, our friends, our work, the state of the world, so there's more anxiety in general in our lives. And that very often comes into our dreams as well. So we worry more, we get the nightmares. Everything seems to be much more exaggerated in these dreams. And these can be really horrible, especially if you wake up, because what will happen is because you've been almost in a sense of terror, very often, your heart will start thumping, you'll wake up.
You can even get a shot of adrenaline, and for a lot of women, that will then trigger a night sweat, too. So you end up getting a combination of all these horrible symptoms in one.
Sleep paralysis
The other really interesting one is paralysis. Now, when you normally have a deep sleep, when you're in the deep dream state, your body goes into a state of almost semi-paralysis.
Now, this is really, it's a good idea because if you're dreaming about something that you're doing, if your body didn't go into this state of paralysis, you would physically act out what you were doing as you were lying in bed. And obviously, that's not a good idea and that would create a restless sleep, and you could also end up doing yourself some harm.
It's a little bit like sleepwalking, or you know, these people who end up finding themselves outside their front door in the middle of the night when they suddenly wake up. What can happen in this instance because you're not as deep, you're in the dream state, your body is in semi-paralysis, but you end up waking up. And it's that frightening moment when you wake up and find that you can't move, sometimes you can't talk either and that can be just, it really sorts of shakes you up, and that's a really horrible one.
But it is quite common, and you do find usually that after a couple of deep breaths and when you suddenly start to focus on real life and your normal surroundings that you're able to move again. All of these, obviously, unless you're getting the really lovely dreams, are going to disrupt your sleep and are going to contribute to symptoms that you may get during the next day.
What can help you dream better?
So it's important if you're getting any disturbing ones to try and sort them out before you go to bed. So what can you do?
Avoid alcohol, caffeine and nicotine before bedtime
Main thing here is to avoid things like alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine in the evening before you go to bed. All of these can stress your nervous system, and that will make you much more prone to all these negative aspects of the weird dreams.
Don’t eat too late
Try not to eat too late as well because that's going to put quite a lot of pressure on your digestive system, it's going to put pressure on your liver. And remember, if you're waking up between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m., that means your liver is getting really stressed. So try and have a lighter meal and have it that little bit earlier on in the evening.
Relax before bedtime
Try and relax as well, I mean, how often do we sit up late at night watching horror movies, or action-packed movies, or movies that really get your heart rate up? And it's the same with books as well. If you're reading some kind of adventure book or a thriller book. These can set your nervous system off just before you go to bed.
So try to maybe have half an hour of some really nice relaxing music, just have a really nice bath with maybe some lavender oil, or just having something really calming before you go to bed to help you drift off into a nice state of sleep.
Don’t exercise too late
Try not to exercise too late as well. I know this is a difficult one because for a lot of women, if you're really busy during the day if you're working, then sometimes, at night it's the only time you can get to exercise, but again, if you do too much, it's revving your nervous system up, too.
Be mindful of your thoughts
Be mindful. Now, I know this is a difficult one. We are more anxious, but if you keep thinking about all the things that you're anxious about, again, that's going to transfer it into your dreams during the night.
Take magnesium with your evening meal
The other things are things you can take. Remember the magnesium. Magnesium's your happy mineral. It's going to keep your mood level, it's going to help to keep you relaxed, and it's going to help to improve your sleep as well. So a nice magnesium supplement, maybe 200 milligrams with your evening meal. Don't take these on an empty stomach because very often, they don't work particularly well.
If you're not keen on tablets, you can get magnesium skin spray, and you can just spray that on before you get into bed. So this is a nice quick-acting one to help you to relax.
Try a flower essence
We also do something called Night Essence, so if you are getting the terrors, if you're getting the nightmares, if you're having really horrible disturbing dreams, then the Night Essence can very often help to calm them down.
Get some herbal help
And the remedy to help you stay in a deeper sleep would be our Dormeasan. So, as you can see, there's certainly a few things that you can help yourself. If any of you have had any other really strange experiences during the night, we would love to hear them.
And if any of you have any great tips, please share them with us. So I'll look forward to seeing you next week for another edition of A.Vogel Talks Menopause.
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