03/17/2026
I've been going to bed earlier.
Not because I want to. Because perimenopause is kicking my ass right now and my sleep is absolute s**t, so I'm doing everything I can to stack the deck in my favor.
I've always been a solid 7-8 hours to function kind of person. That's never been negotiable for me. But now? Even when I do everything right, I'm waking up at 2am because my body can't decide if it's freezing or burning up — cold to hot to cold to hot on repeat — and good luck falling back asleep after that.
So I'm in bed earlier. Not because I'm tired at 9:30 — honestly I'm not — but because if I'm going to lose two hours in the middle of the night to hot flashes and insomnia, I need to at least give myself a fighting chance of hitting seven total.
I've got cooling sheets. A cooling blanket. I'm on HRT and have been for years. I get my bloodwork done every three months. I'm doing search-a-word puzzles and reading before bed. I'm doing all the things.
And some nights it still doesn't matter.
Your body changes. Your needs change. What worked before doesn't just stop working — it gets actively hijacked by hormones doing whatever the hell they want.
So now I'm navigating this in real time. Adjusting what I can control because I can't control the hot flashes or the 2am wake-ups or the fact that my body is in a completely different season than it was five years ago.
This is what real life looks like. It's not perfect. It's not some inspiring before-and-after story. It's just me figuring out how to take care of myself in the season I'm actually in.
Most people are still trying to force strategies that worked before and wondering why nothing sticks anymore. Your body changes. What works has to change too.
That's the work nobody talks about. And that's why most people stay stuck.