Up all night? Call us at 4 a.m

Why we can't sleep and what we can do about it.

WHAT DO JENNIFER ANISTON, NICOLE Kidman, and Christina Applegate have in common? That is, beyond their tremendous celebrity, glowing skin, and superior talent for rocking wigs on screen. They’ve all copped to having sleep issues. What else? Every last one of them is in her fifties. You’re clearly picking up what we’re putting down, so let’s get into it.

A THUMPING 40 TO 60 PERCENT OF menopausal women experience sleep problems that result in exhaustion. Hell, even wellness goddess Gwyneth Paltrow is perimenopausal and tired. If you’re anything like us, you’ve tried all the usual tricks for falling and staying asleep—the pre-bed screen cleanse, the 4-7-8 method, good ole backward sheep-counting—to no avail. Perhaps a $4,000 smart bed with cooling technology that doubles as a health tracker for your whole bod would do the trick??? (Even this guy knows you’re exhausted and is ready to take your money.)

THE TRUTH IS, WE'RE NOT SLEEPING because of hormonal shifts in progesterone and estrogen. Cruelly, these fluctuations can start causing night sweats and hot flashes, and can jolt us awake in the wee hours up to ten years before menopause even fully kicks in. And unfortunately not even a thousand-deep flock of sheep can contend with that rollercoaster.

BUT ALL IS NOT LOST. EATING WELL, layering up, implementing a routine, exercising, minimizing pre-bed screen time (you know it), and buying your partner a Slanket so that you can keep bedroom temps lowwww are all worth a go. You could also roll the dice and stream HBO’s bizarro bedtime series (not that kind of bedtime series—get your mind out of the gutter) in which celebrities like Kidman and Idris Elba aim to lull you to sleep while talking about topics such as birds and outer space as your TV screen burns as bright as ever. (It’s called World of Calm. We tried it, and this is our exclusive review: We’re still awake to tell about it.)

BUT HERE'S THE THING: WHAT CAN really help is getting those hormones back in balance. Which—ding ding ding!—is where Alloy comes in. According to Alloy medical director Sharon D. Malone, M.D, FACOG, NCMP, it’s progesterone that helps us fall asleep and stay asleep, while screwy estrogen levels can cause night sweats and hot flashes (in addition to the slew of other unpleasant symptoms you may be familiar with). May we make a low-stakes suggestion that could change your life? Take the Alloy quiz and consider grabbing your hormones by the lapels with Alloy’s plant-based, bioidentical, FDA-approved products. OR HEY, YOU COULD LISTEN TO KATE Winslet (46, allegedly) muse about horses for 22 minutes while their billowing manes and muscly loins glow from your television - and while your partner moves to the couch in the living room. Up to you!

Sweet dreams, Alloy