Today's Topic
Today on A.Vogel Talks Menopause, I reccomend ways to manage menopause pain at night.
So, do you feel that any kind of perimenopause or menopausal pain is worse at night? Do you find it harder to fall asleep because of it? Do you find it really difficult to stay asleep because the pain keeps waking you up?
What I'm going to do today is look at the types of pain that you can experience, and what you can do to help lessen this pain at night, when it can often feel worse.
Common aches and pains in perimenopause and menopause
Let's take a look at some of the types of pain you can experience at night:
Joint & Muscle Pain
The most common pains that you can experience in perimenopause and menopause are joint pain and muscle aches. These are really, really common.
It tends to be backache, very often, the legs, the hips. And for those of you who maybe spend a lot of your time at a desk, it can be the shoulders and the neck too.
Restless legs syndrome
This is a horrible one because you can be falling asleep and, all of a sudden, it's like your legs have got a life of their own. They start maybe jumping and jerking. And it can be really painful and impossible to fall asleep in that situation.
Headaches
Now, these could be ones that you're getting regularly or, for those of you in perimenopause, you may find that you start to get headaches just before your period is due. And, again, if you've got a thumping headache, getting off to sleep is just literally impossible.
Breast pain
This is such a common symptom in the perimenopause, especially in the week or two before a period. Your breasts can get really heavy. They can get very bloated, so that you go up a breast size. They can become very hard. You may also find that your nipples become really, really tender.
So, especially if you're a front sleeper, it would be practically impossible to fall asleep with this kind of discomfort.
Period pain
For some women in perimenopause, period pains and cramping will get worse and maybe last a bit longer, just as their period is due.
For those of you actually in menopause, you can still get period-like pains every month, even without a period. And, again, these can be more accentuated. They can last for longer and they can be more painful than the usual PMS period pains and cramps.
Why aches and pains can feel worse at night
So why does this happen? There can be a number of reasons; here are few of the most common ones:
Being more aware of the pain: When you're busy during the day, or when you're having to focus on things, if you're maybe moving about a lot, if you're working, then your pain perception decreases, and you might not really notice what's going on.
But when you're going to bed, when you're lying in bed trying to get off to sleep, there is less to distract you from it. So, you may suddenly be aware that there's a lot of pain emanating from certain parts of the body.
Low oestrogen: We know that oestrogen itself is a little like a natural painkiller. When your oestrogen levels start to drop during perimenopause and menopause, you are more sensitive to pain.
It could be something that you experience regularly. If you are approaching perimenopause and menopause and you're already suffering from joint aches and pains, then because your oestrogen level drops, although there's no deterioration to your condition, you are more aware of the pain because of the low oestrogen.
Your sleep position: If you're one of those people that tends to go to sleep and then doesn't move much, then because of the hormonal changes, your muscles and your joints may just stiffen up. And that can be part of the pain. So, maybe you're falling off to sleep okay, but you end up waking in the middle of the night, and you find that you're very stiff and uncomfortable.
Dehydration: Dehydration will make all aches and pains much worse. This is a really important one -just make sure that you don't go to bed in a dehydrated state.
Dehydration will also accentuate anxiety, and that can contribute to having problems falling off to sleep.
Are you Menopausal? Need help with your symptoms? Try our Menopause Symptom Checker.
Answer 3 question to find out if you could be menopausal and get personalised tips and advice straight to your inbox based on your results.
What to do to manage pain at night during perimenopause and menopause
So, what can you do to help lessen these aches and pains, especially at night when they can often feel worse:
Magnesium: Magnesium is great because, apart from anything, it helps with lots of different pains. So, it can help with joint and muscle aches and pains. It can help with headaches, and it can ease those menstrual cramps as well.
It can help to relax you generally, and it can help to encourage sleep. So, this is a lovely one. Take maybe 200 to 300 milligrams with your evening meal. If you're getting other symptoms during the day, then you could take 200 milligrams twice a day, just to make sure that you're getting enough magnesium.
For those of you who want to know what form of magnesium to take, I usually recommend either magnesium citrate or magnesium glycinate. These tend to be better absorbed. But you can also go for liquid magnesium, this will give you a lovely, little boost as well as helping with fatigue and relax you generally.
You can top up your magnesium intake with our Menopause Support tablets, which is a menopause supplement containing, magnesium, soy isoflavones, and hibiscus.
Remember the water: Try a small shot glass of warm water just before you jump into bed. That can help prevent dehydration without being enough to irritate your bladder and wake you up because you need to go to the toilet.
Relax before you go to bed: In the last hour or half an hour before bed, take this time to relax. So, it could be something like a warm bath. That can really help. If you've got somebody willing to give you a short massage before you go to bed, it can be a real treat, especially for achy muscles, and a real boon for helping with sleep.
Remember to do the deep breathing, because deep breathing, maybe just five minutes, before you get into bed or when you're lying in bed, will help to relax you. And for those of you that are able to, a short yoga session, especially if it's muscular and joint aches and pains, because the stretching can just ease everything out. You can get loads of fabulous evening 10-minute yoga sessions on YouTube, so definitely worth doing later on in the evening.
Consider your sleeping position: Watch your sleeping position as well, especially for joint aches and pains. They do say that lying on your side seems to ease the pain somewhat. You can also look at what are called body pillow. These are like a long pillow or a kind of a V-shaped pillow, and you can put those in between your legs. And that supports the hips and the knees, especially if you're getting hip pain. And that can help you to sleep better as well.
You need a good mattress too, and a good pillow to help to support you. If your mattress is more than about eight years old, it may be an idea just to look into getting a new one to help to support you all that much more.
Herbal helpers: You can look at herbs such as Valerian and Hops, because these are known to help you to get off to sleep faster. And these herbs can help you to stay asleep that little bit longer too. And you can take these maybe half an hour before you go to bed.
If you're getting breast tenderness, if you're getting cramps, if you're in perimenopause and your periods are still reasonably regular, you can try the herb Agnus castus.
And for those joint aches and pains in general, you can look at the herb Devil's Claw, or go with a fish oil, or a flaxseed oil supplement as well.
I hope you found this one helpful. It's quite a big issue.
So many of you get in touch with me regarding this particular problem. If any of you out there have found something that's really worked well for you, then please do share it with us.
So, until then, I will see you next week for another edition of A.Vogel Talks Menopause.
