Your period makes a huge impact on your monthly sleep schedule. 90% of women surveyed reported significant emotional physical or emotional changes during their time of the month. Depending on the length of your period, and how long you tend to experience pre-menstrual symptoms (PMS), this can be a significant chunk of your month where you don’t feel right.
This can include physical symptoms such as fatigue, menstrual cramps, headaches, and more. Emotional symptoms can be anxiety, depression, or mood swings. All of these can make you feel like you need more sleep, or your sleep is not effective enough to preserve your energy or mood. For those with Premenstrual Dysmorphic Disorder (PMDD), 70% report insomnia during their period.
What is needed is effective sleep. Effective sleep is sleep that helps you feel refreshed, without causing problems to your overall sleep schedule. Our guide to sleeping on your period will help you sleep effectively, while relieving your symptoms.
Temperature Control
Your menstrual cycle can cause your body temperature to fluctuate. This can make sleeping much more difficult. Overheating can prevent you from falling asleep, or cause you to wake up mid-sleep. Bad bedding can make this worse. Some materials, such as some cotton bedding, can absorb all the external heat, making for bedding that feels too warm. Other materials, such as bamboo, have greater temperature control.
Bamboo has a natural moisture absorbency that helps you to keep cool when it’s hot and warm when it’s cold. This temperature control protects you from overheating and skin breakouts. Shop our bamboo bedding collection here.
Period-Proof Bedtime Bathing
It has been proven that a hot bath before bed can help improve your sleep. Bathing 90 minutes before bed is linked to helping to change your temperature, encouraging your body to fall asleep faster. This is especially the case for your period. Heat treatment is a popular remedy for menstrual cramps, as heat can help open constricted muscles and keep the oxygen flowing.
Some natural ingredients, in particular lavender, can help relieve period symptoms when added to your bath, while also boosting sleep. The scent of lavender is linked to stress and pain relief, both symptoms of periods. Lavender is also linked to better, faster sleep. See our collection of lavender bath goods for a combination that helps bring a restful menstrual sleep
Get Into Position
Your sleeping position can have a big effect on the quality of your sleep. A good sleeping position can help relieve waking pains. On your period, the right position can relieve cramps that could otherwise keep you awake.
The fetal position is the ideal position for cramps. The position, involving curling up and pushing your legs towards your abdomen, can block the worst of pain from cramping and prevent leaks. This can help you fall asleep earlier and stay asleep for longer.
Keep it Regular
During your time of the month, the temptation may be to have a lie-in and sleep longer. This can cause problems for your wider sleep schedule, especially for those with insomnia. Sleeping for longer on some days may make it harder to fall asleep on later days, leading to tiredness during the day.
If you suffer from insomnia, the best thing you can do during your time of the month is to stick to your regular sleeping time. It is better to ensure you’re getting enough quality, REM sleep during that time. To do this, your sleeping position and temperature control are two such ways to improve the quality of your sleep. If you can, you can experiment with taking a nap during the worst of your period symptoms. See our guide to napping effectively to see if taking a nap can improve your daily energy levels.
