Evening Routines to Improve Sleep During Perimenopause
Struggling to sleep in perimenopause? An evening routine built around your changing hormones can reduce night sweats, racing thoughts, and early waking.
How perimenopause changes the way you sleep
Sleep problems are among the most commonly reported experiences in perimenopause, and they tend to get worse before they improve. Fluctuating oestrogen and progesterone affect the architecture of sleep, reducing time spent in deep restorative stages. Hot flashes and night sweats wake women repeatedly through the night. Anxiety, which is more common during this phase, makes it harder to fall asleep and easier to wake at 3am with thoughts that refuse to stop. Understanding that these changes have a hormonal root is useful, because it shifts the response from frustration toward practical problem-solving. An evening routine cannot replace the sleep you are losing, but it can meaningfully reduce the barriers standing between you and rest.
The temperature factor and why it matters
Core body temperature needs to drop slightly for sleep to begin, and this natural cooling process can be disrupted by night sweats and hot flashes. Preparing your environment in the evening helps. Keeping your bedroom cool, between 16 and 19 degrees Celsius for most women, is one of the most effective steps. A lukewarm shower about an hour before bed can also help: it raises your surface temperature briefly, then causes a drop as you cool down, which signals to your brain that sleep is approaching. Breathable cotton or moisture-wicking bedding makes a noticeable difference for women experiencing night sweats. These practical changes cost little and have a real effect.
Winding down your nervous system
Many women in perimenopause describe an inability to switch off in the evening, a kind of low-level alertness that persists even when they are physically tired. This is partly hormonal: lower progesterone removes one of its calming, sleep-promoting effects. You can support your nervous system by deliberately slowing down in the hour before bed. Dimming lights, turning off news and social media, and doing something quiet and absorbing, such as reading, gentle stretching, or a short breathing exercise, all help move the body out of sympathetic activation and toward the parasympathetic state needed for sleep. Consistency matters more than the specific activity you choose.
What to eat and drink in the evening
Alcohol is a common sleep disruptor that many women underestimate. It may help you fall asleep faster initially, but it fragments the second half of the night and worsens night sweats. Even one glass of wine can noticeably affect sleep quality in perimenopause. Caffeine after midday also has a longer effect than most people expect, as its half-life means it is still active in your system at bedtime. A light evening meal that includes some protein, such as chicken, fish, eggs, or pulses, can support stable blood sugar overnight. Some women find that a small warm drink like camomile or valerian tea before bed helps with relaxation, though individual responses vary.
Managing anxiety and racing thoughts before bed
Anxiety and intrusive thoughts in the evenings are extremely common in perimenopause and are frequently tied to hormonal changes rather than external circumstances alone. Keeping a notebook by the bed to write down worries or tomorrow's tasks can help offload mental load before sleep. A short body scan or progressive muscle relaxation practice, which involves tensing and releasing muscle groups in sequence, is one of the better-evidenced techniques for reducing pre-sleep arousal. If racing thoughts are a persistent problem, speaking to your GP is worth doing, because some women find that this symptom is significantly improved by HRT or other targeted support.
Building the routine so it actually sticks
The challenge with any evening routine is starting it at a consistent time and keeping it simple enough to do even when you are tired. Aiming to begin winding down at least an hour before your target sleep time is a reasonable goal. Anchoring the routine to an existing habit, such as tidying the kitchen or turning off the television, gives it a natural trigger. Starting with just two or three changes rather than a complete overhaul reduces the likelihood of abandoning the whole thing after a bad night. Progress is rarely linear in perimenopause: some nights will be difficult regardless, and that does not mean the routine is not working.
Using a symptom log to see what helps
Evening routines are genuinely individual, and what helps one woman may do nothing for another. Logging how you sleep each night alongside what you did in the hours before bed helps you identify your own patterns. An app like PeriPlan lets you track symptoms including sleep quality consistently over weeks, which is long enough to see real trends. You might discover that alcohol affects you more than you realised, that your bedroom temperature makes a significant difference, or that certain habits reliably improve your nights. Having that evidence changes your relationship with the routine from something you are trying to something you know works for you, which makes it far easier to keep going.
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