In this week’s Sleep Diaries, a 49-year-old NHS manager questions how to deal with disrupted sleep triggered by hormone fluctuations.

A little about me:

Age: 49

Occupation: NHS manager

Number of hours of sleep you get each night: 6-7 hours

Number of hours of sleep you wish you got each night: 7-8 hours

Do you measure your sleep in some way (e.g. using your phone or wearable): no

How much water do you drink on average per day: I don’t drink water but I drink about one litre of diluting juice per day.

How much caffeine do you drink on average per day: One can of soda

How much exercise do you do on average per week: I’m fairly sedentary as I work mostly from home.

Day 1

I wake up tired because I stayed up way too late last night. I am working from home today and I don’t have a lot of meetings so it’s not too hectic. Sometimes I have up to nine meetings a day but there are only four today

I start the day with a boiled egg and a slice of toast before starting work at 9am. After a morning of work, I have a ham and coleslaw sandwich for lunch at my desk followed by a couple of glasses of diluting juice throughout the afternoon. I finish work around 5.45pm.

Once I’m done we have dinner – Turkish kebabs with salad and hummus – although I don’t end up eating much. Then, I take my daughter and her friend to the beach at 7pm. On the way there we stop and have an ice cream – I have a clam shell – and then we paddleboard and swim until 10pm.

When we get back I have to stay up to wash and hang up some clothes for tomorrow, but I’m not tired anyway. I take my HRT (hormone replacement therapy) and then once that’s done I spend about 1.5 hours in bed on my phone before deciding to try and get some sleep around 12.15am. I put on a hypnosis video on YouTube as they sometimes help me drift off and fall asleep pretty easily.

Day 2

Despite getting to sleep quite quickly last night, I ended up waking up 3-4 times. The first time I woke up was about 40 minutes after I fell asleep.

The second time I woke up was due to stomach cramps – I suffer occasionally from IBS-like symptoms. In the end, I wake up naturally at around 7am.

I’m off work today so I drop my daughter at school and grab a cheeky McDonald’s breakfast on the way home – a sausage and egg McMuffin meal. I spend the rest of the morning shopping before coming home and doing about two hours of housework.

I have some French toast for lunch, as well as a diet coke, and snack on some Haribo sweets throughout the afternoon. We end up heading out on the paddleboard again for 1.5 hours to make the most of the nice weather, so I have a quick bacon sandwich for dinner when we get home with some diluting juice.

I play on my phone in bed until 11.20pm before managing to fall asleep without any sleep sounds. I’m woken up at 2.45am by the neighbour’s house alarm, and it takes until 3.20am before I’m ready to go back to sleep, using an eye mask and white noise machine to help. 

Day 3

My son wakes me up at 7am while he’s getting ready to leave to meet his girlfriend for the day, but I manage to doze until around 8am.

I have yoghurt with lemon curd and mini meringue for breakfast alongside a Pepsi Max. I’ve been comfort eating a lot over the last year due to losing a friend to cancer, work stress and a lack of good sleep, so I’m struggling with my diet.

I spend the morning doing some organising in the house before heading into town to walk around the shops and stopping for lunch at a new Spanish place. I have a tapas selection – chicken and pepper skewers and a chickpea casserole with a diet coke.

Once I’m home I watch a bit of TV and have dinner – a wholemeal wrap pizza with goats’ cheese and olives. I also collect and distribute my Olio collection for the evening (a community lending and donation app I use).

I head up to bed just before 11pm. I go on my phone for about 20 minutes before sticking on some white noise and dozing off.

Day 4

I’m woken up several times during the night by the cats and people going to the toilet – I eventually get up around 7am. I have a yoghurt with peanut butter and banana and a peach iced tea for breakfast.

I feel exhausted all morning and try to go back to sleep several times, but I just can’t. I end up falling asleep for a few minutes on the sofa around 1.30pm before having a lunch of a chicken sandwich and some crisps.

In the afternoon I complete week one of the Couch To 5k plan on the treadmill and play a bit of badminton in the garden. For dinner we have a BBQ – I have some chicken wings and salad.

I need to commute to work tomorrow, so I set my alarm for 6.30am. I’m ready for bed by 9pm but my 17-year-old has friends over for his birthday so it takes me a while to fall asleep.

Day 5

I didn’t get to sleep until midnight last night and was woken several times. I end up sleeping through my alarm, which leaves me running an hour late.

I walk to the train station and have my breakfast on the train – overnight oats with chia seeds, banana and walnuts. Once I arrive I walk from the train station to my office – I’m not sure how many steps I do in total but it’s way more than I usually do when working from home.

I’m not feeling too tired today surprisingly. I have a prawn salad with hummus and a peach for lunch and then get back to work – it’s a busy day so I’m distracted. I resist the urge to grab crisps and chocolate for a mid afternoon snack.

I get home slightly earlier than usual around 5.20pm. We order takeaway pizza as a treat for my son’s birthday – I end up having two slices of ham and pineapple.

After dinner I nip out in the car with my daughter to look at some summer clothes in Sainsburys, then come home and give myself a gel manicure. I get my breakfast and lunch organised for tomorrow (I’m in the office again) and head up to bed around 10:30pm.

So, what does it all mean? A sleep expert offers her thoughts

Dr Nerina Ramlakhan, sleep expert and professional physiologist, says: “The menopausal years can be tricky and challenging. Often, they are referred to as the ‘sandwich years’ because you’re caught in the middle of so many life events – illness and bereavements, teenagers, elderly parents, financial and work pressures etc – while you’re riding a rollercoaster of hormonal, physical and emotional changes. 

“Your sleep isn’t great and you’re comfort eating to deal with the life stresses you’ve been dealing with. During perimenopause and menopause levels of progesterone start to dwindle which can cause anxiety, insomnia and restlessness. Taking HRT, as you are, can help with this.”

Dr Ramlakhan continues: “However, you could also improve your sleep in a number of small but profound ways – less clock-watching during the night and scrolling at bedtime and better hydration. Your water drinking leaves a lot to be desired and this won’t help her sleep, energy or stress levels. 

“You could also benefit from improving your nutrition. Notably, less of the soda and junk food snacks and more nutrient-rich meals to manage your blood sugar levels and cravings. Sleep can take a hit during the peri, menopausal and post-menopausal years but you can definitely minimise the impact by making better lifestyle choices.”

If you would like to take part in Stylist’s Sleep Diaries, please email us at lauren.geall@stylist.co.uk with your name, age and any sleep problems you’re dealing with, using ‘SLEEP DIARIES’ as the subject. We look forward to hearing from you.

Lead image design: Ami O’Callaghan

Other images: Getty; Dr Nerina Ramlakhan