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Everyday Wellness: Midlife Hormones, Menopause, and Science for Women 35+

Ep. 566 “This Isn’t Random” — Why You Keep Waking Up in the Middle of the Night | Menopause, Sleep & Insomnia

March 12 · 26 min
0:00-26:22

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Welcome to this week’s Midlife Minute.

Many women have been asking why they wake up at 2, 3, or 4 am every night. So today, I'm breaking down 10 common reasons this happens. I’ve also included some research links in the show notes for those who want to learn more.

Stay tuned as I unpack the key factors that disrupt women’s sleep in midlife.

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:

  • Cortisol spikes and sleep disruptions

  • Why caloric restriction and repeated fasting could stress the body and lead to an overactive sympathetic nervous system

  • The link between declining progesterone and nighttime awakenings

  • How chronic under-eating or over-exercising can disrupt sleep, recovery, and metabolic health

  • Why estradiol fluctuations make it harder to stay asleep 

  • Alcohol and late-night sugar fragment sleep

  • Hormonal changes during perimenopause/menopause and increased sleep apnea risk

  • How inflammation, leaky gut, and disrupted neurotransmitter production contribute to early awakenings

Connect with Cynthia Thurlow  

Research Links

Progesterone for treatment of symptomatic menopausal women

Sympathetic activity and hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis activity during sleep in post-traumatic stress disorder: a study assessing polysomnography with simultaneous blood sampling

Progesterone prevents sleep disturbances and modulates GH, TSH, and melatonin secretion in postmenopausal women

[EMPLOYMENT OF THE ELDERLY PEOPLE IN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND UKRAINE: REALITIES, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS]

Obesity and its implications on oncological urological surgery

Metastatic phenotype is regulated by estrogen in thyroid cells

Soy protein isolate increases urinary estrogens and the ratio of 2:16alpha-hydroxyestrone in men at high risk of prostate cancer

NMR at pressures up to 90 GPa