Yoga self care for menopause insomnia
You know the feeling: lying there exhausted wanting desperately to get back to sleep, but the mind is wired, racing with thoughts about the day, and your body just won’t relax.
Insomnia can hit particularly hard at menopause. Women who might previously have enjoyed a full and deep night’s sleep might find themselves waking several times due to night sweats, the need to wee, thirst and anxiety.
Sleep is essential for the body and brain to process what life throws at us, and to reset. It’s when the lymphatic system can detox, when the brain can dream and process emotions, and the endocrine system can regulate hormones. With proper rest the various systems of the body get the chance to settle into the ‘rest and digest’ mode.
Moving through menopause involves a huge hormonal rewiring job; we are being reorganised, both physically and psychically, in preparation for our post reproductive phase of life. The resulting fluctuating hormones can be jarring on our whole system and we can find ourselves way more sensitive to external stimuli and more susceptible to stress.
A vicious loop can play out between our hormonal flux, our stress response and our ability to sleep. We can struggle more than usual to shift from the ‘fight or flight’ mode into the parasympathetic nervous system where deep rest is possible. Sleep deprivation has a profound impact on our ability to cope the next day; we can feel ‘not ourselves’, strung out and unable to achieve even the simplest of tasks. There are long term physical, mental and emotional health effects too.
Lifestyle changes can help: things like watching your intake of stimulants such as coffee and spicy food, carefully managing your screen time, and letting your bedroom be a sanctuary rather than an extension to your office. There is no one ‘fix’; what works for one person, will not work for everyone. In the most severe cases, insomnia can’t easily be solved. But there are small things that we can do throughout the day to help and yoga can provide a hugely therapeutic resource.
Yoga practice turns down the intensity of modern life and teaches us to drop into our deeper, calmer selves. We practice yoga as an embodied intention; as a way of locating ourself amidst the changes, and steering the nervous system away from the hyper-alert towards a place of rest.
Just close your eyes and place your hands on your belly and breathe into them. Tune into your breath and notice how it rises and falls in your body. A few minutes of this will help rest your nervous system and start to redress the balance between rest and stimulation. You can practice this any time of day, or even on waking in the night.
Before you go to bed try releasing the day’s stresses with viparitta karani (legs up the wall pose). I like to raise my hips on a cushion which allows more space for breath low in the belly and pelvic bowl, and I also find a lavender scented eye pillow soothing when the mind is frazzled. Having your heart above your head reverses the gravitational pull on your blood flow, bringing calm and relief to overworked systems.
During the night if you feel a night sweat sweeping through, slide the covers off and place your legs into an easy supported supta baddha konasana. This pose is really effective for releasing excess body heat.
Yoga offers a wide variety of breathing, posture and meditation practices to address sleep issues and to support the menopause transition. Keep a journal to track your symptoms and make a note of which practices are most effective for you right now.
When the reality of menopause insomnia symptoms leaves you feeling unmoored and vulnerable, yoga can pave a way back to yourself, to your innate resilience and to your natural ability to rest, and this can feel empowering.
