5min read
Sleep problems are common in midlife. In a British study of women aged 48 to 54, around 4 in 10 reported trouble sleeping. [1]
The problem is not always simply fewer hours but also disrupted sleep. Recent wearable data found that women aged 50 to 54 averaged about 6½ hours of sleep and around 50 minutes awake after first falling asleep. [2]
Poor sleep can affect more than energy and concentration the following day. It can reduce insulin sensitivity, influence eating behaviour and, when it becomes a repeated pattern, make weight gain more likely or fat loss harder to sustain.
So what is actually happening, and what can you do about it?
If you read nothing else, read this
One thing worth knowing: Insufficient sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity and, on average, increase hunger and food intake. But the response varies, and hunger alone does not explain why people sometimes eat more.
One thing to ponder: What is actually disrupting your sleep? Night sweats, chronic insomnia and repeatedly going to bed too late are different problems and need different responses.
One thing to experiment with: After a poor night, try to not overcompensate. Keep food choices deliberate, make the day easier where you can, and give yourself a proper opportunity to sleep the following night.
Why does sleep become more difficult around menopause?
Changing levels of oestrogen and progesterone can affect sleep directly and indirectly. For some women, hormonal changes lead to hot flushes and night sweats that repeatedly interrupt sleep. [3,4]
But hormones are only part of the picture.
Stress, anxiety or low mood can make it harder to fall asleep or get back to sleep. Pain and needing to urinate can interrupt the night. Alcohol may make you sleepy initially but fragment sleep later.
Ageing can contribute too. Across adulthood, deep sleep tends to decrease, night waking increases and the body clock can shift earlier. [5]
Other possibilities include insomnia, sleep apnoea and, more simply, not allowing enough time for sleep.
So “poor sleep” can mean different things: too little sleep, repeated waking, difficulty falling asleep, early waking or sleep that leaves you tired and foggy the next day.
Identifying the actual cause matters because it influences management.
If sleep problems are persistent, troublesome or affecting daily life, discuss them with your GP or a specialist medical professional rather than assuming they are simply part of menopause.
If hot flushes or night sweats are disrupting sleep, NICE recommends menopause hormone therapy (MHT) for hot flushes and night sweats, with menopause-specific cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as another option. Fezolinetant is a non-hormonal option for moderate to severe hot flushes and night sweats when MHT is unsuitable. Your medical professional can discuss which options are appropriate for you. [6]
Persistent insomnia may benefit from CBT for insomnia (CBT-I), while possible sleep apnoea or another sleep disorder needs appropriate medical assessment.
Lifestyle measures can support sleep too. We will come back to those later.
Does insufficient sleep reduce insulin sensitivity?
Yes.
Insulin sensitivity describes how effectively the body's tissues respond to insulin. When it is impaired, more insulin may be needed to manage the same amount of blood glucose.
Randomised trials and systematic reviews show that insufficient sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity, including in studies of women. [7,8]
The evidence is reasonably strong, although women in perimenopause and postmenopause have not yet been studied sufficiently to know whether sleep loss affects them differently.
Reduced insulin sensitivity does not mean one broken night causes diabetes, that every meal will produce a large rise in glucose or that carbohydrates suddenly becomes a problem.
How does poor sleep affect appetite and eating behaviour?
Not in one predictable way.
On average, controlled studies find greater hunger after insufficient sleep, but the response varies. Some studies also find less fullness, stronger cravings or greater interest in rewarding foods, while others do not. [8,9]
Importantly, hunger and food intake do not always move together. People can eat more without reporting greater hunger, or feel hungrier without eating more. [9]
So increased food intake after poor sleep cannot be explained by hunger alone. Changes in appetite, food reward and simply having more waking time to eat may all contribute. For more on why we eat beyond physical hunger, see Hunger Games: Why restrictive diets can backfire.
What about cortisol?
Poor sleep does not simply mean “high cortisol”.
Cortisol normally rises around waking and falls across the day. Severe sleep restriction can flatten that decline, leaving levels higher later in the day. [10]
But a meta-analysis of 24 acute sleep-deprivation studies found no consistent overall rise in cortisol. [11]
So sleep loss can alter when cortisol is released, without necessarily keeping it high throughout the day.
Nor has cortisol been shown to explain the other effects of poor sleep. Changes in cortisol do not consistently track changes in insulin sensitivity, and there is no good evidence that the modest cortisol changes caused by insufficient sleep are responsible for cravings or abdominal fat gain. [12]
Cortisol is part of the body's response to sleep loss. It is not a catch-all explanation for midlife weight gain.
Does poor sleep promote fat gain?
Repeated insufficient sleep can create conditions that promote weight gain.
One poor night will not cause meaningful fat gain. The concern is when insufficient sleep becomes a regular pattern.
Sleep restriction can increase how much people eat. It can also reduce everyday movement and increase sedentary time. In one recent randomised analysis, restricted sleep was associated with around 17 extra sedentary minutes a day. [13]
If more energy is coming in while less is being used, a positive energy balance becomes more likely. If that continues, body weight and body fat can increase.
But poor sleep does not make fat gain inevitable.
In the SWAN Sleep Study of midlife women, shorter sleep did not predict who would gain more weight over the following years. [14]
The clearest conclusion is that repeated insufficient sleep can make a positive energy balance more likely by influencing how much we eat and how much we move. It does not cause fat gain independently of energy balance.
Even small amounts of movement still count. See: Do short periods of movement really count?
Can poor sleep block fat loss?
No.
Fat loss still requires a sustained energy deficit. Poor sleep does not switch that process off.
What it can do is make the deficit harder to maintain. If insufficient sleep repeatedly leads to eating more or moving less, the deficit becomes smaller and may disappear.
There is experimental evidence that improving sleep can shift this in the other direction. Adults who usually slept fewer than 6.5 hours a night were helped to sleep about an hour longer and subsequently ate around 270 kcal less per day, without being told to change their diet. [15]
They were younger adults, so we should not assume the same size of effect in women in midlife. But the study supports an important point: sleep itself can influence how much people eat.
So poor sleep does not block fat loss. Repeated insufficient sleep can make the energy deficit needed for fat loss harder to maintain.
What can you do about poor sleep?
Start with two questions:
Am I allowing enough time for sleep? And if I am, what is disrupting it?
Most adults need around 7 to 9 hours of sleep, although individual needs vary. If six hours is all that is available because bedtime repeatedly gets pushed back, the first step is fairly clear: protect more time for sleep. Work backwards from the time you need to get up and decide when you need to be in bed. [16, 17]
If you are allowing enough time but still waking repeatedly, struggling to fall asleep or waking up feeling tired, look for the pattern. A simple sleep diary for a week or two can help. Note when you go to bed and wake up, any episodes of night waking, hot flushes, caffeine, alcohol, exercise, your meals, and anything else that seems relevant.
Then look at the things you can influence.
Get some morning light. Natural light soon after waking helps set the body clock and supports a regular sleep-wake rhythm. If you can, get outside rather than relying only on indoor light.
Review caffeine timing. Caffeine can affect sleep many hours later. A useful starting point is to have your coffee in the morning or early afternoon, especially if sleep is already disrupted. If bedtime is around 10 to 11 pm, stopping by about 2 pm is a reasonable thing to try.
Keep a reasonably consistent sleep and wake time. Your body likes routine. Regular timing helps reinforce the body’s sleep-wake rhythm.
Wind down before bed. Dim the lights, step away from work and give yourself a period of lower stimulation. Reading, stretching, breathing exercises or another relaxing routine can help signal that the day is ending.
Think about screens. It is not simply about “blue light”. Bright light, stimulating content and losing track of time on a phone, tablet or TV can all delay sleep. If screens tend to push bedtime later, create some distance from them before bed.
Manage stress before your head hits the pillow. A short evening walk, writing down what needs dealing with tomorrow, breathing exercises or another way of deliberately shifting out of work mode can help.
Move regularly. Physical activity supports sleep, and a gentle evening walk can be a useful way to combine movement with winding down.
Mind the alcohol. Alcohol may make you sleepy initially but affects sleep quality and can fragment sleep later.
Make the bedroom supportive of sleep. Dark, quiet and comfortably cool is a sensible starting point.
Notice your evening eating habits. Going to bed very hungry can be uncomfortable, but so can a large meal immediately before bed. Allow 2-3hrs after your last meal before you go to bed.
You do not need to change all of these at once. Choose the one or two things most likely to be interfering with your sleep.
These habits can support sleep, but they are not treatments for every sleep problem. Persistent insomnia may need CBT-I, while recurrent night sweats, possible sleep apnoea or other ongoing sleep problems are worth discussing with your GP or a specialist medical professional.
After an occasional poor night, there is no need to overcompensate by fasting, cutting carbohydrates or trying to eat as little as possible. Keep meals simple, make deliberate choices and give yourself another proper opportunity to sleep the following night.
The aim is not perfect sleep. It is to understand what is getting in the way and work on the parts you can realistically change.
Takeaways
Poor sleep is common around menopause, but hormones are only part of the picture.
Insufficient sleep can reduce insulin sensitivity and affect eating behaviour. On average hunger may increase, but people respond differently and hunger alone does not explain why people sometimes eat more.
Poor sleep can alter the normal cortisol rhythm, but cortisol does not explain every craving, change in insulin sensitivity or change in body weight.
Repeatedly insufficient sleep can make weight gain more likely and fat loss harder to sustain, if it leads to eating more and moving less. It does not override energy balance.
After one poor night, there is no need to overcompensate. Keep your choices deliberate, make the day easier where you can, and give yourself a proper opportunity to sleep the following night.
Persistent night sweats, insomnia, possible sleep apnoea or other ongoing sleep problems are worth discussing with your medical professional.
If you want help working out what's worth your effort and what isn't, get in touch. We’ll have a friendly conversation, and you'll leave clearer on what actually drives results in midlife, whether or not we work together.
References
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