Hot flashes, weight gain, mood swings. You probably already know about a few of the common menopause symptoms. But can menopause make you tired, too?
The short answer is yes, and there are quite a few causes of menopause fatigue. Luckily, there are also quite a few ways to get more energy during menopause.
Below, we’ll dive into the causes of menopause fatigue, how long it’ll last, and how you can fix it.
Disclaimer: The scientific literature uses gendered language when talking about menopause. We have used the term “women” in this article, but this advice is for anyone who experiences menopause fatigue.
“Menopause can cause fatigue," says Dr. Chester Wu. "It causes hot flashes, night sweats, sleep disorders, and stress, which can all make it hard to get enough sleep at night. Try to squeeze in some extra sleep when you can with afternoon naps or by heading to bed a little earlier than usual. This should improve your energy levels.”
Dr. Chester Wu is double board certified in Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, and provides sleep medicine services, medication management, and psychotherapy to adults at his private sleep medicine and psychiatry practice.
Yes, menopause can make you tired. shows general fatigue is a common symptom of menopause, and menopause symptoms can also disrupt your sleep, which will make you tired.
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You can learn more about menopause sleep problems here.
Menopause fatigue is fatigue caused by menopause. Women may also experience fatigue during perimenopause (the time leading up to menopause) and postmenopause (after menopause, when your periods have completely stopped).
Symptoms of menopause fatigue include:
Sleep problems during menopause can also cause cravings, digestive issues, and trouble concentrating — just to name a few.
If you struggle to sleep during menopause, you’re not alone. shows 25% of perimenopausal women and 30% of postmenopausal women say they get a good night’s sleep a few nights a month or less. And it’s thought 38% to 60% of peri- and postmenopausal women have insomnia.
You’ll be more at risk of menopause fatigue if:
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Menopause fatigue is most likely caused by changes to your hormone levels, which can lead to feelings of fatigue and sleep problems.
Hormones can cause poor sleep throughout a woman’s life, including during your period, pregnancy, and menopause.
During menopause, your ovaries stop producing estrogen and progesterone.
Declining estrogen levels can cause hot flashes and sleep-disordered breathing. Estrogen also helps to regulate your body temperature, and it’s much harder to fall and stay asleep when you’re too warm.
Lower can cause anxiety and sleep apnea, both of which can ruin your sleep.
Testosterone is usually associated with men, but women produce it, too. But testosterone declines with age and it’s linked with insomnia, needing to use the bathroom more at night, and more sleep-disordered breathing.
These hormone fluctuations can also affect adrenal and thyroid hormones, which can cause fatigue.
Plus, to make matters worse, shows cortisol levels increase as you move through menopause. This may be caused by fluctuating estrogen levels. High cortisol can cause sleep problems, weight gain, and brain fog — all of which may contribute to menopause fatigue.
You can learn more about the link between cortisol and sleep here.
Sleep debt is the amount of sleep you owe your body. When you don’t meet your sleep need — the genetically determined amount of sleep you need — you’ll build up sleep debt.
It’s easy to build up sleep debt during menopause as:
Unfortunately, sleep debt can make menopause symptoms like brain fog, irritability, and low libido worse, which can cause more stress and more sleep loss.
RISE can work out how much sleep debt you have.
We looked to RISE users to see if women really get less sleep during menopause. Unfortunately, our data backs it up. Women have more sleep debt at age 50 to 59 — the time they may be going through menopause — than at any other age. The only exception is age 18 to 23. We can’t say for sure whether menopausal women have more sleep debt and RISE users don’t accurately represent the general population as they turn to RISE to get more energy.
Learn more about how to know if you’re getting enough sleep here.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can .
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Circadian misalignment is when you’re living out of sync with your circadian rhythm. This is your roughly 24-hour body clock.
You could be out of sync if you:
Even if you’re getting enough sleep overall, if you’re getting this sleep at the wrong times for your body clock, you can feel tired.
It’s easy to get out of sync at any time of life, but it can happen during menopause as you may have given up work and have kids moving out of the house, meaning your usual sleep pattern is thrown off.
Learn more about how to find the timing of your circadian rhythm here.
Menopause may not be the only thing making you feel tired.
You may have low energy if:
We’ve covered more reasons for female fatigue here.
There’s no set time that menopause fatigue will last. It may last the entire menopause transition, which can be about eight years. But you may also feel tired during perimenopause (which can start about six years before your periods end) and postmenopause.
It depends on what’s causing your fatigue, too. For example, hot flashes, a common sleep disruption during menopause, can last after your final period.
You can treat menopause fatigue by lowering your sleep debt, getting in sync with your circadian rhythm, improving your sleep hygiene, and considering cognitive behavioral therapy, and hormone replacement therapy.
Here’s more on how to beat menopause fatigue:
If you’ve got a lot of sleep debt, you’re going to feel tired, whether you’re going through menopause or not. We recommend keeping your sleep debt below five hours for maximum energy.
You can lower your sleep debt by:
RISE will automatically track how much sleep debt you have as you work to lower it.
Learn how long it takes to recover from sleep deprivation here.
Expert tip: Don’t just aim for eight hours of sleep — find out how much sleep you need exactly. The RISE app uses our phone use behavior and proprietary sleep-science-based models to work out your sleep need.
More research needs to be done to find out whether women need more sleep than men. But women do suffer from more sleep problems than men, so need more time in bed to get enough shut-eye.
Beyond your sex, your sleep need is highly individual. We looked at 1.95 million RISE users aged 24 and up and found their sleep needs vary quite a bit. Some only need five hours of sleep, whereas others need a whopping 11 hours 30 minutes.
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RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can click .
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Getting in sync with your circadian rhythm can boost your energy levels and it’s good for your , too, which can help your energy in the long run.
Here’s how to get in sync with your circadian rhythm:
RISE predicts your circadian rhythm each day, so you can easily stay in sync.
Expert tip: Your circadian rhythm dictates your energy levels throughout the day. Check RISE to see when your energy levels are higher (usually mid-morning and early evening) and schedule your most important tasks during this time to make the most of the times you may feel less menopause fatigue. We’ve covered how to be more productive here.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can .
Sleep hygiene is the name for the set of daily habits that can help you fall and stay asleep. They’re important at all times of life, but especially when menopause symptoms can so easily disrupt your rest.
Here’s what to do:
You can learn more about how to improve your sleep hygiene here.
RISE can guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene behaviors every day and tell you the most effective times to do them.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can .
Stress and anxiety can keep you up at night and make you feel drained during the day.
Here’s what you can do to lower your stress:
Learn more about how to sleep with anxiety here.
Here’s a quick fatigue fighter — get a foot massage.
A found postmenopausal women who got a foot massage once a day for seven days slept for an hour longer each night and had lower levels of anxiety and fatigue.
Getting down to a healthy weight can help you have more energy and sleep better.
And a states menopause weight gain and changes to your body composition can make hot flashes worse.
It’s tough to lose weight during menopause, but you can make it happen by cutting your calories, upping your exercise, getting enough sleep, and considering hormone replacement therapy.
Learn more about how to lose weight during menopause here.
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One found when postmenopausal women did more physical activity, they felt more energy.
Exercise can also help you fall asleep, reduce stress, and keep your weight in check — all of which can boost your energy levels. have also been shown to reduce menopause symptoms like hot flashes.
Learn more about how exercise can improve your sleep here.
Just be sure to avoid intense exercise within an hour of bedtime as it can keep you up. RISE can tell you when exactly to skip a workout.
RISE users on iOS 1.202 and above can here.
Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is a type of therapy that aims to change the way you think about sleep. It’s often a first-line treatment for insomnia.
One found CBT-I can help women with insomnia during perimenopause and postmenopause.
Supplements may help you get more energy during menopause.
One found taking a daily 1,200-milligram soy lecithin supplement for eight weeks helped women aged 40 to 60 with fatigue feel more energy. It also lowered their blood pressure — a win-win.
have been shown to reduce how many hot flashes you have.
And a found fennel-valerian extract can help to reduce hot flashes and improve sleep disorders in postmenopausal women.
Overall, eating a healthy diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole gains, and legumes can help to reduce fatigue.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) replaces the hormones that decline during menopause. HRT may be able to reduce fatigue as a symptom and reduce menopause symptoms that are stopping you from getting enough sleep — like night sweats.
For example, estrogen therapy can, headaches, sweating, and how often you wake up during the night. Hormone replacement therapy may also help you , improve your , and increase your response to antidepressants (if needed).
HRT may not help with sleep-disordered breathing, however. More is needed.
HRT isn’t right for everyone, though. Some experts believe HRT isn’t safe for those with a high risk of breast cancer. But recent research disagrees.
A states when started in women younger than 60 and/or close to menopause, HRT “significantly reduces all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease.” It adds that the risks of health issues like breast cancer and stroke are rare and comparable to other medications.
HRT may make some women feel tired, but for many, it can improve their sleep and therefore energy levels.
Speak to your healthcare provider to see if HRT is right for you. They may suggest other medications like low-dose birth control pills, which contain estrogen and progesterone, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
RISE can help you get more energy during menopause by:
We’ve covered more tips on how to feel more awake hereand how to use the RISE app to boost your energy here.
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Talk to a doctor about menopause fatigue if it’s affecting your quality of life and well-being. They can test you for sleep disorders and health issues that may be causing fatigue like sleep apnea, depression, chronic fatigue, or heart disease.
A healthcare provider can also recommend the best course of action, whether that’s medical treatments like hormone replacement therapy or lifestyle changes.
Many women experience menopause fatigue, and you may have trouble sleeping during perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause.
To get more energy during menopause, try lowering your sleep debt, getting in sync with your circadian rhythm, doing more exercise, lowering your stress, and trying hormone replacement therapy.
The RISE app can work out how much sleep you need, so you know what you should be aiming for each night. RISE can also tell you how much sleep debt you have and help you lower it, and predict your circadian rhythm each day to help you stay in sync.
To make it easier to get a good night’s sleep, RISE will guide you through 20+ sleep hygiene habits, too.
You can get more energy fast — 80% of RISE users get better sleep within five days.
Menopause fatigue is fatigue that’s caused by menopause. Fatigue is a common symptom of menopause and you may experience sleep problems during perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause. This can be due to fluctuating hormones, symptoms like night sweats, stress, anxiety, and sleep disorders.
Yes, extreme tiredness can be a symptom of menopause. Fatigue is reported as a common symptom during perimenopause, menopause, and postmenopause, and sleep loss and sleep disorders are common.
There’s no set time that menopause fatigue lasts, it’ll affect everyone differently. However, you may experience menopause fatigue for the entire menopause transition, which can last eight years. You may also experience hot flashes 4.5 years after your last period, and hot flashes can lead to sleep loss and fatigue.
Menopause fatigue may go away. You may experience menopause fatigue for the duration of menopause, which can last eight years. However, some women continue to feel fatigue postmenopause. Getting more sleep, exercising, and lowering stress levels can help menopause fatigue go away.
Lowering your sleep debt, getting in sync with your circadian rhythm, exercising, yoga, foot massages, losing weight, cognitive behavioral therapy, and hormone replacement therapy can help with menopause fatigue.
Eating a healthy diet high in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes can help with fatigue. And research shows supplements like soy lecithin, omega-3 fatty acids, and fennel-valerian extract may help with menopause fatigue, other menopause symptoms like hot flashes, and sleep problems. If you’re on a diet, you may feel more fatigue.
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