"I Don’t Feel Like Myself Anymore” The Sleep Crisis No One Warned Us About By Dr Jana Pittman

“I don’t feel like myself anymore.”

It’s the sentence many women whisper when they finally sit down in a doctor’s office to talk about perimenopause or menopause. Not because they don’t trust their doctor but because for decades, these conversations stayed behind closed doors.

As Dr Jana Pittman former Olympian, doctor and busy mother of six explains, the most common concerns she hears aren’t dramatic emergencies. They’re cumulative disruptions: sleep loss, mood swings, hot flushes, brain fog, vaginal dryness, and painful intercourse.

“It’s often the partners sitting beside them, staring at the floor,” she says. “These aren’t easy things to talk about. But the number one thing I hear is, ‘This feels like a different person living in my body.’”

The 3am Spiral

For many women, the most relentless symptom isn’t the hot flush   it’s the sleep disruption that follows.

“You fall asleep exhausted.At 3am, you wake drenched.You throw the blankets off.
Ten minutes later you’re freezing and you pile everything back on.  Its’exhasting,” says Jana.

“Then your mind starts building tomorrow’s mental spreadsheet - work deadlines, teenage hormones, ageing parents, mortgage payments. And that’s before the alarm goes off.”

Donna Armstrong, mother of two teens and EIR Women Partnership Manager  agrees  that sleep affects everything.

“Physically, mentally, emotionally. We know this from having newborns but this time, the baby is your hormones. Many women hit perimenopause at the peak of their careers while parenting teenagers or young adults, often caring for ageing parents and managing financial pressure. When sleep disappears, resilience follows,” says Donna.

Biology explains why.

Dr Pittman explains, “During perimenopause, fluctuating estrogen disrupts thermoregulation which is the body’s internal temperature control system. Your body overheats quickly, triggers sweating, then swings in the opposite direction, leaving you shivering. These fluctuations can be more intense in perimenopause than menopause itself. It’s not in your head. It’s physiology.”

Why We’re Finally Talking About It

There’s good news.

Women are speaking up, earlier and louder than previous generations. Gen X and Gen Y women, who’ve lived much of their lives online, are refusing to suffer in silence.

Research into women’s health is expanding. Conversations are happening at dinner tables, in group chats and on podcasts. The stigma is loosening.

But openness has also brought anxiety. Social media can make menopause sound like an inevitable catastrophe. It isn’t.

“Women in our EIR community tell us, this stage brings clarity, confidence and freedom. Less people pleasing. Less caring about what others think. A recalibration,” says Donna. “But sleep remains foundational to accessing that version of yourself.”

Rebuilding Sleep, One Layer at a Time

When hormones fluctuate, the sleep environment matters.

Night sweats often create a frustrating cycle of heat, sweat and chills. Heavy bedding can trap warmth and intensify temperature swings.

That’s where temperature-regulating sleep solutions become practical support.

The REST Evercool® Cooling Comforter is designed with thermoregulation in mind. Its cooling fabric disperses body heat rather than trapping it, helping stabilise temperature through the night. Instead of overheating and scrambling to cool down, the body rests in a more consistent environment.

For women navigating hot flushes and night sweats, that consistency can mean:

• Fewer wake-ups

• Less blanket kicking

• Reduced overheating spikes

• An easier return to sleep

It’s not about stopping hormonal change - it’s about reducing the factors that amplify it.

Because when sleep improves, everything feels more manageable.

The Compounding Effect of Rest

One bad night is frustrating. Five broken nights in a week is destabilising.

Sleep deprivation intensifies irritability, anxiety and brain fog, lowering emotional regulation which can trigger more hot flushes. The cycle feeds itself.

Some women notice their flushes are emotionally triggered  by stress, excitement or anger. As stress responses settle and sleep improves, symptoms often feel less explosive.

And sleep is the lever.

“Sleep is the drug you can’t bottle,” says Dr Jana Pittman.  “But it’s the thing you need most to have resilience during the day.”

Perimenopause isn’t a failure of the body. It’s a transition. Like adolescence, it’s driven by hormonal shifts, only this time women are juggling mortgages, leadership roles and caregiving.

The difference now? We’re talking about it. That’s why Rest has launched The 3AM Club with Dr Jana Pittman a place where women can share their experiences, deepen their understanding, and access education and community support.

Women are seeking solutions. From hormone therapy to stress regulation to better sleep support, women are building personalised systems instead of silently enduring.

And sometimes reclaiming yourself starts with something simple:

A cooler night.
A longer stretch of uninterrupted sleep.
A body that isn’t fighting the bedding at 3am.

Because when you wake rested, you don’t feel like a stranger in your own body.

You feel like yourself again.

To find out more about Rest® or better still join The 3AM Club