The Sleep Doctor: The 4 Hormones Wrecking Your Sleep & What to Do About It

If you're in perimenopause or menopause, sleep has probably become something you think about all the time. Falling asleep, staying asleep, waking up at 3am, feeling exhausted, waking up anxious even when you did fall asleep. Perimenopause sleep disruption and menopause insomnia are real, they are hormonal, and they are not your fault. The nights can feel endless.

That's why Tamsen Fadal invited Dr. Andrea Matsumura on The Tamsen Show. A board-certified sleep medicine physician, menopause expert, and creator of the D.R.E.A.M. Sleep Method, Dr. Matsumura breaks down exactly what is happening in the body when sleep falls apart in midlife and gives you the tools to get better sleep in perimenopause starting tonight.

We cover:

• Why waking up at 3am is a cortisol event, not an anxiety problem, and what to do when it happens
• The sleep apnea statistic that will stop you cold: up to 90% of women in midlife who have it don't know, because they don't look like the textbook patient
• What melatonin actually is, why taking it at bedtime is usually the wrong move, and what happens to production by age 50
• How alcohol is disrupting your REM sleep, and why one glass hits completely differently now
• The D.R.E.A.M. Method: the five-part framework Dr. Matsumura built because treating one thing at a time only ever gets women halfway there
• The ferritin level behind restless legs that most providers aren't checking
• Why getting out of bed at 3am is the right call, even though it feels like the worst one
• How every additional 15 minutes of sleep compounds into something significant over time

This episode will help you get your sleep back on track because it’s the foundation of everything. When your sleep goes, it starts to unravel the rest of your life.