[Music] major funding for this program is brought to you in part by during menopause a woman can lose significant bone mass in fact over 50 half of all women will likely experience an osteoporotic fracture Osteo strong is a unique system for developing your skeletal strength that uses bone building exercises for osteoporosis getting older doesn't mean getting weaker osteostrong a proud supporter of public television we were told about the change but we were never told it would feel like this at the touch of a button Ember wave provides a cooling sensation Ember Labs is a proud supporter of public television I'm menopausal but pause me you're joking right I'm just getting started it's the start of my new life this is me no pause neovadiol Bishi committed to skin Health [Music] Science if enjoying a peaceful night's sleep is a dim and distant memory and you struggle to get through through the day as you feel so tired you're going to love my show today as it's completely focused on natural ways to get restful sleep from about the age of 50 I didn't actually sleep more than 2 hours every night and I put it down to being old I think that every night was difficult every night was difficult trying to get to sleep and then wouldn't stay asleep long I wasn't sleeping well at all I hardly got any sleep at night at all I had 4 hours sleep if I was lucky it would either be that I couldn't get sleep or I'd wake up in at 4: in the morning and just couldn't get back to sleep and I knew that I needed my sleep to be able to cope in the day so then I would be worrying that I wasn't sleeping my name is Marian Stewart I'd like to welcome you to menopause Solutions I'm often referred to as the pioneer of the natural menopause movement because my team and I have helped hundreds of thousands of women to manage their menopause naturally it's well documented that good sleep is vital for our well-being in this show my seasoned experts and I will be explaining why sleep gets interrupted as we get into midlife and Beyond and how we can get back to sleeping peacefully without resorting to sleeping pills and we're going to be cooking up a recipe for peaceful sleep including calming exercise well researched supplements meditation sleep Tech and my top diet tips to induce peaceful sleep apart from poor quality sleep don't forget those dreaded night sweats that keep us tossing and turning for years unless we learn how to get things under control let's begin by meeting four women who are finding a good night sleep absolutely impossible when I reached 50 I had a real problem I wasn't sleeping at all I didn't sleep for more than 2 hours a night and that had gone on for 2 years and I felt super tired all the time and all that I managed to get through the day I didn't feel like I had any energy left at the end of the day I thought that's what happened when you got old the insomnia side of it was just an absolute nightmare it was just so challenging so exhausting and it was it was getting off to sleep that was a really big challenge just stopping the mind going over and over and over things and the palpitations and questioning wi the palpitations it would only get a couple of hours and then I'd be waking up again my insom was off the scale I either wouldn't be able to get to sleep or I would wake up multiple times going to the toilet I would wake up at 4 in the morning with a racing mind worrying about everything worrying about the fact that I couldn't sleep um and that would keep me wake for longer so I had terrible insomnia I was tossing and turning all night and I'd have to try and work and function on 4our sleeper night night and you who can function of for our sleep I was waking up probably five six times minimally during the night and I was waking up so many times that by the next morning I was exhausted I wasn't getting enough sleep and I was just really dragging apart from leaving us feeling tired lack of sleep has such a profoundly negative effect on our General Health and well-being Dr Michael Bruce best known as the sleep doctor is an acknowledged expert who has helped millions of people to have better sleep why is sleep so important and why do we feel so ragged when we're lacking it so it turns out that sleep affects every organ system and every disease State literally everything you do you do better with a good night's rest as an example stages three and four that's where we see our physically restorative sleep which has a tendency to occur in the first third of the evening and thenm sleep which stands for Rapid eye movement sleep which we see towards the end of the night is our mental restoration kind of moving things from our short-term memory to our longterm memory so it turns out that sleep affects literally everything you do from cognition to physical to even emotional and we get into such bad habits don't we and it has an incredible ripple effect it's quite amazing when you start to look at all the different things that you can do that will have a pretty significant bad effect overall on your sleep the two that come to mind first are Cath a and alcohol and then of course an irregular schedule so what I've done is I've put together a five-step plan where we address all of those things and I'm going to give it to everybody right now so step number one is to wake up at the same time seven days a week notice I didn't say go to bed at the same time I said wake up at the same time no sleeping in on the weekends and trying to catch up on sleep the data would suggest that that's just not useful if in fact you do figure out when you want to wake up again keep keeping it consistent is going to be very important so step number one is to choose one wakeup time and stick to it seven days a week step number two has to do with the dreaded caffeine uh which we know has a major effect on everybody's sleep falling asleep the quality of your sleep things like that so step number two is where I ask people to stop caffeine by 2 pm.

as the very latest here's the problem is caffeine has a halflife of between six and eight hours which means that if you stop at two by 10:00 only half of it is out of your system it's a little bit better than nothing um and we'd like you to move that backwards but as a good starting point step number two stop caffeine by 2 p.m. step number three has to do with alcohol don't get me wrong I love a good glass of wine or a nice Scotch or even a beer but at times if you have it too close to bedtime it can definitely have an effect so step number three is to stop alcohol 3 hours before bed and if you can limit it to two drinks this lowers your overall consumption and allows for you to work it out of your system and get a better night's rest step number four has to do with exercise the single biggest way to improve your quality sleep is daily exercise but you don't want to do it too close to bedtime because that increases your core body temperature which can make it difficult to sleep so do me a favor exercise daily you don't have to run a marathon but do something and stop exercise roughly four hours before bed step number five I call it the three 15s so these are three things that I want you to do each morning that come in numbers 15 first of all when you wake up swing your legs over the side of the bed put your feet on the floor still sit and take 15 deep breaths what this does is it kind of wakes up your respiratory system brings you present and makes you aware of what's going on for the day the second thing I want you to do is drink 15 ounces of water most people don't know it but sleep in and of itself is a dehydrative event you lose almost a full liter of water each night just from the in your breath so drinking water before caffeinating I say hydration before caffeination is always a good idea the final thing I want you to do is either go outside or go over by the window and get 15 minutes of sunshine the sunlight when it hits your eye you have a special cell in your eye called a melanopsin cell and this turns off the Melatonin faucet in your brain helps get rid of brain fog also 15 minutes is the exact amount of time that it takes your body to begin production of vitamin D and most people are deficient in vitamin D so in summary step number one choose one wakeup time step number two stop caffeine by 2 pm.

Step number three stop alcohol 3 hours before bed step number four exercise daily but stop exercise 4 hours before bed and step number five is to wake up and take 15 deep breaths drink 15 ounces of water and get 15 minutes of sunshine thank you so much for your puls of wisdom coming up foods to help you relax and lull you to sleep and if it wasn't bad enough to be tossing and turning throughout the night we sometimes suffer from the dreaded night sweats which are like hot flushes on [Music] steroids are you finding it impossible to sleep peacefully waking up in the night and finding it hard to fall back to sleep night sweats are one of the most common menopause symptoms and can keep us awake every hour during the night but did you know when you have a midlife refuel you can turn out the lights on night sweats keep fluids to a minimum in the evening and consume foods rich in magnesium and vitamin D which have been shown to help to keep your bladder robust helping you get through the night without needing the bathroom since caffeine is a stimulant that can keep us awake switch to Tasty herbal alternative drinks including mint chamomile or Valyrian switch off all devices a couple of hours before bed and wind down gently with yoga or meditation and set the scene by sleeping in a cold dark room and go to bed a regular time each night what we put in our mouths greatly influences the quality of our sleep watching our diet is key to overcoming menopausal insomnia how we eat during the day is going to impact the quality of our sleep and many of us have been told not to eat about three hours before bedtime that's so that we can focus on digesting our food and then resting later so if we eat a large meal closer to bedtime we're going to sleep poorly at night and then the next day we run the risk of having things like food cravings especially for things that are sweet in order to give us energy and to pick us up a bit so indeed both sleep and our food choices throughout the day are interconnected and there are three foods that I would recommend the first one is almonds a small handful of almonds right before bedtime might be good because they could stabilize our blood sugar in case we wake up during the night because of low blood sugar they also give us magnesium as well as a little bit of melatonin the second one is tarte cherry juice I always like to keep a bottle of 100% pure tarte cherry juice in our refrigerator and what we have learned from a small scientific study is that people with insomnia who were given 2 8 oun glasses of tarte cherry juice throughout the day for two weeks had improved sleep compared to a group that did not have the T tart cherry juice and we also know that tarte cherry juice has melatonin then finally I think of walnuts walnuts look like a brain and they may contain some of the actives that help us with healthy sleep like getting in a little bit of fiber healthy fat and of course probably most importantly protein especially tryptophan which converts to serotonin and melatonin those so those are my top three foods for healthy sleep coming up Ro yourself to sleep with ballerina Rock Girl bet you didn't know that consuming fighter estrogens helps the lining of your bladder to be more robust if you're anything like me you hate it when people will tell you you can't eat things that you enjoy eating so on our program I love to give people lots of different Alternatives and today I'm talking about Sweet Treats alternatives to Chocolate because if you remember Dr Bruce was talking about caffeine and alcohol so let's deal with alternatives to caffeine first of all so instead of chocolate you can have lots of different sweet things any fruit you like fruit in the season which is yummy delicious and sweet there's also dried fruit and I've chosen here again you'll see a theme cuz I love cherries so these are dried cherries organic and really healthy some pineapple some mango slices and you can even get fruit bars strips that you can carry around with you so sometimes when I'm on the run I take some Dy fruit with me with with some nuts and that's a really healthy snack and then there's also little coconut cookies if you want a treat sweet then you can have something like that instead of chocolate then my other go-to favorite are these amazing sugar-free jams I've chosen today black currant and apricot and rice cakes or quinoa and rice cakes they've got so much whole fruit in here you can literally just spread it on there and take a bite sometimes when I'm working at home I even go to the fridge and take a spoonful and eat it it's so sweet and yummy you can wean yourself off caffeine over a period of a few days if you're feeling stressed there are tees you can get for stress as well nighttime tees that you can have before you go to bed which just help you relax as you're winding down to go to sleep giving up alcohol doesn't have to be a nightmare you can have lots of lovely Alternatives alcohol-free gin and this particular one tastes like gin and tonic you be really surprised just put some tonic in there and a few raspberries make it feel a bit more exotic and then a little bit of rosemary to give it some flavor and honestly when you taste this you all agree it tastes just like gin and tonic if Jin isn't your thing and you prefer wine then the alcohol-free WI wines come in all the different flavors you can imagine I've chosen a s Blan today and a cabinet Sor so you could try those and I've also got some apple cider which tastes like the real thing although there's no alcohol in it having good sleep doesn't just depend on having really good nutrition although that's an important part it's about mind body and spirit and in terms of body we need to be moving as we've heard and we're going to go and meet mitsuka again and see what she's got in store for us to help us to get back to sleeping peacefully through exercise women who can't sleep are feeling rubbish they haven't got any energy and the last thing they want to do is exercise but we know it's good for them so they're are dos and don'ts aren't they tell me absolutely I would definitely go for a walk after dinner that's okay but I would definitely not do cardio Hier arobics at night it's going to keep you all energized and you don't want that you want to be able to have a peaceful night a little bit of stretch ing a little bit of exercise let me show you we're going to go back to the Demi pla which always it's a little stretch you're going to go out and in in and out and then you're going to do a nice little you can do a gr play if you want there you go and then again we're going to do another Porta bra you're going to do another tandu you're going to transition to the other side and we're going to repeat so you're going to go out and in and it's beautiful art as well back in and then we're going to go out full Porta bra a nice little stretch right before bed is always good and necessary so now we're on the ma.. is a great way to start your day kick off your morning or midm morning with a nice little routine that's going to help circulate the body and get that cardio going and it's easy ready yep show me right now how you're going to sit here very good you're going to keep your posture you're going to crawl your hands all the way to the front here and then you're going to sit back so you want to make sure that your hands are nice and you're going to go into a child's pose right here and then you're going to stretch you're going to come out stretch stretch stretch yeah how does that feel let's do that again Lo one two now you can hold it as long as you want it's a nice way to stretch stretch one more time tuck that head in and out we're going to rise we're going to go on our tippy toes there there you go very good we can just go out two 3 4 and then other leg switch one 2 3 four back down stretch again so a child's pose right there five six 7 eight and a nice little stretch now that you can do you can repeat in phrasing you can do four six eight reps it's a perfect way nice and early by the time 7:00 rolls around you're nice and tired coming up next natural supplements to help you sleep but first let's talk about the role of meditation and mindset to improve our sleep with Tony major our experienced well-being coach one of the most common symptoms menopause is insomnia and it drives people completely crazy and they don't believe they're ever going to have a good night's sleep again what can they do about that cuz their mind really plays tricks on them you have to start visualizing yourself going to sleep you have to visualize and you have to believe without fear remove fear from your mind no matter what you're thinking about start believe and I think once you start practicing this you're going to see some really good things happening excellent and the breathing you were talking about box breathing last time that plays a part at night as well as during the day absolutely so we can take the breathing into a complete meditation and that's a little longer a little different because now we're focusing on relaxing the whole body and visualizing your whole body relaxing um the muscles becoming more relaxed more relaxed sh me sh me okay so as you um as you sit there just um take deep breaths okay and relax your shoulders and I want you to I'm pretending I'm lying in bed right so and you can do it right here too just breathe in through the nose and breathe right into the base of your spine right into the belly and as you breathe out of the mouth just breathe out anything that's not serving you right now whether it's a thought an emotion a memory just let it go and as you breathe in feel that oxygen that healing oxygen coming into your body really rejuvenating you become more relaxed and continue to do that just keep that pattern excellent and then presumably you get the feeling going down to your toes and so you can relax your whole body and then eventually fall asleep again that's it that's it that's all that's all it's that simple you don't have to be a floating Yogi to do this you know once you practice these simple things you see yourself getting there excellent thank you so much absolutely thank you so much too exercise helps us sleep but choosing the right time of day is important since exercise releases endorphins the feel-good hormones into the brain these chemicals can keep us awake we really shouldn't exercise more than 4 hours before bedtime allowing the brain to settle down Sleep Disorders are common for women going through menopause I'm pleased to welcome Dr Katherine Dary she's a well-known expert on natural behavioral and lifestyle medicine for the treatment of sleep disorders and is the founder of The Institute of naturopathic sleep medicine one of the things people may not realize is that our natural melatonin secretion decreases significantly in the first half of life so by the time we're 50 we only have an eighth of what we had when we were children so I like for people to take a low dose physiologically in line with our natural control levels 0.3 mg of plant-based melatonin and not only does Melatonin help our sleep but it also has really powerful antioxidant properties it's an anti-inflammatory it helps with our mitochondria health so really it affects our overall health in addition to sleep that's amazing great that natural remedies can actually do that there are some other natural remedies as well aren't there what what else do you recommend well valaran comes to mind valaran is a plant an herbal medicine and it's been shown to help women fall asleep faster and also improve their quality of sleep one of the things to know about valaran though is some of the older research shows mixed effects and what we know now is that we really need to use valarian products that are made from the root of the herb uh because that will consistently get us results people want to take 300 to 600 milligrams of valarian root compounds uh about 30 minutes before bed in recent years technology has stepped in to help us not only get to sleep but also stay asleep apps have been created by neuroscientists to help induce sleep at the Press of a button helping to optimize the health of our brain and once again get deep restorative and restful sleep a study of women with Perry and postmenopause suffering from night sweats showed that a wearable device that influenced the neurop Pathways in the wrist reduce body temperature and increase the ability to return to sleep after a night's sweat sleep deprivation is such a nightmare we know it affects our health as well as our moods but as I've shown you just because you're going through menopause doesn't mean your nights of good sleep are over now let's go back and talk to the ladies that we met at the beginning of the show and see whether making changes to their D and lifestyle has affected the quality of their sleep I can't tell you how fantastic it is to sleep through the night when you haven't been sleeping I felt energized and ready to go out and paint the town red I can now sleep peacefully on the night without laying there thinking about nothing laying there with palpitations I was able to get to sleep when I went to bed and I was actually able to stay asleep therefore it made my day the next day much more manageable in somnia was causing me to feel ill I wasn't working to my full potential at work and now I feel like I'm alive again now I'm sleeping through the night it's really excellent I am not waking up I wake up feeling refreshed I really feel ready to go isn't it great to know that you can get back to sleeping peace for by making changes to your diet and lifestyle and tapping into well researched sleep Tech coming up next time beating the menopause bulge and finding your healthy weight again even women who haven't struggled before find it incredibly difficult to lose weight next week I'm going to teach you how to drop a dress size in just four weeks without doubting you don't want to miss that I hope you found this show inspiring and I look forward to sharing more wisdom with you in the next show thank you for joining me on Stuarts menopause Solutions this education initiative continues on Marion Stewart's natural menopause.

TV website where you can watch more interviews attend live sessions with Marion and other experts and view video extras and more major funding for this program was brought to you in part by as we get older our bones can begin to change osteoporosis the loss of bone density is a real concern for older adults osteostrong uses bone building exercises for osteoporosis and developing your skeletal strength strength getting older doesn't mean getting weaker Osteo strong a proud supporter of public television I'm menopausal but PA me you're joking right I'm just getting started it's the start of my new life this is me no pause neovadiol Bishi committed to skin Health [Music] Science we were told about the change but we were never told it would feel like this at the touch of a button Ember wave provides a cooling sensation Ember Labs is a proud supporter of public television [Music]