How to Reduce Hot Flashes and Sleep Better

Standard Medical Advice For Hot Flashes and Menopause Sleep Problems

Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT)

One of the standard methods to deal with symptomatic menopause is hormone replacement therapy (HRT). Treatment with progesterone and estrogen is a safe and effective way to improve sleep and reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes and night sweats. 

However, if you are at high risk of breast cancer, have a history of blood clots or have some other conditions, the doctor should always monitor your health levels in order to adjust the treatment to your personal needs and symptoms.

Anti-depressants

There is good evidence that SSRI and SNRI anti-depressants can be effective at reducing hot flashes but they have a lot of side effects plus a high risk for dependency. These types of medications I would consider a last resort as the risks of taking them outweigh the benefits, I would start with some of the natural treatment options that we will discuss soon.

Sleeping Pills

Sleeping Pills can also help you “sleep” through the night but can also have many side effects, and they also don’t give you the same quality sleep so can have long term health consequences. Plus many sleeping pills can be addictive so you start to build up a dependency on these types of medications.

Lifestyle Tips To Sleep Better and Reduce Hot Flashes 

Avoid Blue Light at Night

Get rid of the habit of surfing on the Internet before sleep, watching videos on Youtube or browsing the photos on Instagram. Blue light is one of your biggest enemies. It tricks your mind, pretending to be daylight and prevents you from falling asleep fast.

If you want to sleep better and reduce hot flashes, consider wearing blue light blocking glasses and eliminate social networks before sleep, instead read a paper book.

BLUblox are some of the best quality blue-blocking glasses available and this is what I wear.

Diet Tips to Reduce Hot Flashes and Improve Sleep

1. Eliminate caffeine, spicy foods, and alcohol to reduce the severity of hot flashes. 
2. Enrich your diet with isoflavones, which have estrogen-like effects that help reduce hot flashes. 

Sources of Isoflavones

Assess for Sleep Apnea

The reason why you don’t have a healthy sleep could be sleep apnea. It can be caused by many factors, including a small upper airway, being overweight, smoking and drinking alcohol. 

The main symptom of apnea is chronic snoring but you may also experience difficulty concentrating, irritability, depression, learning and memory difficulties. 

Consider сhilliPAD or OOLER to Stay Cool at Night

The chilliPAD is a well-designed sleep system that can help treat your sleep issues. It includes:

The OOLER is an advanced version of the chilliPAD and can boast of some additional features.

Choose Quality Mattress

he memory foam can be hot,  go for inner-spring or Latex mattress.

The latex mattress and innerspring mattresses have great air circulation and support a cooler sleeping temperature than the memory foam. These are also a good choice for a proper spinal alignment which can reduce muscle tension and help you get to sleep faster.

Try Mind-Body Practices

Take care of your mental health to have a healthy deep sleep and improved menopausal symptoms.

These are a few examples of self-calming techniques that can help you sleep better during hot flashes:

Try Cool Hypnosis

When hot flashes are unbearable, utilizing hypnotic relaxation therapy is another option. Several studies have proved that ‘cool imagery’ during hypnosis can help reduce hot flashes during menopause.

Supplements to Help with Hot Flashes and Night Sweats

Soy

Soy is one of the reasons that Chinese and Japanese women are thought to have a low incidence of menopause as they have a diet high in natural soy, except when these same women move to the U.S and change their diet the incidence of menopausal symptoms increases.

Soy often has a bad image and with good reason, these days it is find in many highly processed foods like soy milk, soy flour and soybean oil and these foods are not found in a typical Japanese diet. It is the soy isoflavones that are important for reducing hot flashes and these can be found in traditionally made fermented soy products like Natto, Miso and Tofu.

Black Cohosh

Black Cohosh can reduce the frequency and severity of hot flashes, this has been shown in research and Black Cohosh is often found in many menopause formulas because of the good results that it gives.

Red Clover

Red Clover – this is another herb rich in isoflavones that can effectively reduce menopause symptoms.

Evening Primrose Oil (EPO)

While the research on EPO is a bit thin many women report a lot of benefits and improvements in menopausal symptoms like hot flashes when they take it, this may be due to its anti-inflammatory effects.

 

The Recommended Supplement 

Advanced Menopause Support – this contains Black Cohosh, Red Clover and the soy isoflavones to help with hot flashes and menopause symptoms

Supplements to Help with Sleep Quality and Insomnia

Sometimes just focusing on sleep quality is the best option and there are some good supplements to help you get to sleep, or if you find yourself waking in the night I have some good options to help with this too.

Magnesium

Magnesium is probably the one supplement that most people would benefit from taking, especially if you have poor sleep or a high-stress life (who hasn’t?)

Glycine

3 grams of glycine before bed is one of the best solutions for people who find themselves waking throughout the night. It can also help to improve sleep quality

CBD

CBD is fast becoming one of the most researched compounds for a wide variety of conditions and it is particularly beneficial for anxiety, plus research shows that it can also help to improve sleep quality

Theanine

Theanine helps sleep quality by reducing anxiety and can also improve REM sleep 

Melatonin

1 to 3 mg of melatonin can be effective in helping you get to sleep and stay asleep, especially if you tested for low levels of melatonin on the DUTCH hormone test

5-HTP

5-HTP can help with anxiety and depression as it is a precursor to making serotonin, it can also help to improve sleep quality as serotonin is a precursor to making melatonin. 

Relora 

Relora is a trademarked combination of Magnolia bark extract and Phellodendron bark extract and research shows that it can lower cortisol levels and anxiety. High cortisol at night is a big reason why you maybe struggling to sleep and I have seen many clients have improvement with Relora

Tests for Hormones During Menopause

If you are not sure if you have still in the peri-menopause stage or have transitioned into menopause then doing some testing can be a good way to know where your hormones are at.

Blood Testing

Measuring Follicle Stimulating Hormone (FSH) and Luteinizing Hormone (LH) along with estrogen and progesterone is a good place to start.

Once you reach menopause the FSH and LH levels will rise significantly and the estrogen and progesterone levels will drop. One of the problems with blood testing is that sometimes it is not sensitive to assess the low levels of estrogen accurately and it often only tests for estradiol, and not estrone and estriol.

You can order a comprehensive sex hormone and thyroid hormone test through the button below

DUTCH Hormone Test

This is a comprehensive test of the sex hormones and also how estrogen is getting metabolized which can be an important factor in conditions such as fibroids and estrogen dominant cancers.

The DUTCH test also measures the adrenal hormones in detail as well as epinephrine levels (your flight of fight hormone), and elevations in these hormones can contribute to hot flashes.