Sleep disturbances

Restful sleep is essential for health and well-being. Sleep disturbances may arise from many situational stresses, feeling anxious or sad, from illness or pain, related to night sweats or due to the environment (a nursing baby, a snoring partner or unpredictable noises in the neighborhood). Sleep plays an essential role in our circadian rhythm—around-the-clock timing related to eating, temperature, reproduction and all fundamental processes necessary for the health of all of our tissues.Natural progesterone helps sleep when given in therapy doses (300 mg at bedtime) by mouth as oral micronized progesterone (but not as progesterone cream or even vaginal progesterone). This sleep-inducing effect of progesterone has been proven in controlled trials in men as well as in menopausal women.Progesterone shortens the time to fall asleep, lessens night time awakening and increases total sleep time while not being addicting or causing morning “hangover” effects. After three months of taking progesterone women’s morning responses on a whole battery of memory and other brain tests were unchanged or improved compared to themselves when not on progesterone. In the first nights of taking progesterone, you can feel dizziness or “drunk” if you are awakened within an hour or two of taking it. And, if you are really behind on rapid-eye-movement sleep, you might feel like sleeping in to catch up when you first take progesterone. Finally, progesterone is safe from overdosing since it is the only sleep-promoting medicine that speeds rather than slowing or stopping breathing.