Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

Perimenopause is a difficult time for many women, and usually causes lots of discomfort, including insomnia. If it’s resulted from hot flashes, then it’ll resolve correspondingly with hot flash therapy. Another cause of insomnia could be anxiety. At this very part of the life, the same as if they were teenagers, women suddenly need much more sleep because their bodies are experiencing transitions, and this fact only increases sleep disturbances.

Keeping several simple rules can help to get a refreshing night’s sleep.

1. Take magnesium supplements one or two times a day, as lack of magnesium is a usual thing for women, causing them to wake up several times during the night. Calcium and antioxidants supplements will also help to get a good sleep.

2. Try to avoid alcohol and caffeine.

3. Never overeat before bedtime. However, light and healthy snack before going to bed can help. Make sure the meal is low in carbohydrates but high in protein. A good example is cottage cheese, regular cheese, lean meat or fresh fruit.

4. Change your bedroom a little – take the TV away, cover all the mirrors and always sleep in the dark so that nothing could disturb you.

5. Keep doing exercise on a regular basis.

6. Develop your own ritual of going to bed and stick to it. Try to tell your body it’s time to relax by changing into your pajamas and completing the evening hygiene an hour or a half before planned going to bed. Don’t break a schedule on weekends – go to bed at usual time.

7. Clean your head before bedtime. Don’t keep pondering about the events of the day, trying to recall or memorize what you’ve said, did or never did, don’t plan the “to do” list for the next day, just turn your brain off. If you have any difficulties with that, try a prayer and deep breaths. Writing down whatever is worrying you might also be helpful – you would be able to think about everything in the morning.

8. Calm and relax in the evening, avoid reading, watching or talking about anything disturbing.

9. Meditation helps much of course.

10. If you tried everything said above and still experience difficulties with falling asleep, don’t despair. Get out of bed and go take some natural aid supporting sleeping, valerian root for example. It will finally help you re-establish sleeping patterns.

Never get upset if you can’t get to sleep. That won’t last forever, and it’s mostly up to you to relax and wake in the morning fresh and happy!

One of the most unpleasant pms symptom is pms depression. Actually there is hardly anything in common between real depression and so-called pms depression, because real depression is not a ‘short-term’ depression.

First of all one should differentiate bad condition with real depression.
Surely, every woman can observe different physical and psychological changes in her body during pms period. Actually depression is really a terrible condition for the body and mind, it leads to constant irritability and mood swings. Among some serious symptoms doctors usually calls tearfulness, alcohol intolerance, panic conditions, anxiety, angry outbursts, insomnia. The worst variant of depression is neurosis combined with mental diseases.

According to the statistics, only 5% of all the world population suffer from real depression. Most women of these statistics suffer from depression because of hormonal changes in their body. And among them are really difficult and well-known conditions, like menopause and childbirth. Most of the doctors believe that the most serious women depression is connected with the pregnancy. But actually there are no proved facts that hormonal changes influence women life so much. Nevertheless, the doctors often proscribe some antidepressant using these periods.

PMS depression first of all is connects with the menstrual period. Usually it starts in the middle of menstrual period and connected with the low level of serotonin in the body. Being a neurotransmitter, serotonin transmits the signals between nerves in the brain and the whole body. Serotonin is known for its sleep, mood and appetite regulation in the body. So, it’s evident, that people, who suffer from mental diseases or who are under depression, has low level of serotonin in their blood. As they have level of serotonin in the blood, te signals from brain are weaker. So, the person has problems with the appetite, either overeating or malnutrition, sometimes it even causes total loss а appetite. As a result – insomnia, mood changes and so on.

Being a special type of depression, pms depression has its own symptoms and specifications. Ordinary psychological symptoms are insomnia, alcohol intolerance, mood swings, irritability, angry outbursts, confusion thinking, nausea. Surely, first of all it’s connected with the lower level of serotonin in the blood. The second reason is believed to cause this condition is hormonal changes.
Before buying various variations to treat pms depression one should point out whether ir’s a real PMS depression, or just ordinary depression or other psychological problems. Pms depression last not linger than a month as it-s connected with menstrual period, so, if it lasts longer than one menstrual – it’s not a pms depression, it’s some other type of problem, perhaps, even a real depression.
The best way in this case is to consult a doctor. Actually even before buying so-called safe ‘herbal’ medicines consult a doctor. The doctor is the only person to prescribe antidepressants and other types of herbal medicines to fight pms depression.