If you've been lying awake at 3am wondering why your sleep fell apart in your 40s, the answer isn't stress or aging — it's your hormones. Estrogen and progesterone have been running your sleep system for decades. When they start to fluctuate in perimenopause, everything unravels. Here's what's actually happening in your body, what the research says works, and what I've tried myself — honestly.

I do everything right — 9pm bedtime, no late coffee, magnesium — and still wake at 3am with racing thoughts. Here's my honest perimenopause sleep protocol and valerian root trial results.

At 43, running a business while navigating perimenopause, I watched my gut health fall apart — the bloating, the 3am waking, the mood crashes, the constipation-then-diarrhoea cycle that nobody warned me about. What I discovered changed everything: the connection between declining oestrogen, the gut microbiome, and almost every symptom I was experiencing. This is my honest, research-backed account of how I used probiotics, fermented foods, and targeted dietary changes to rebui