Three a.m. Overtime for the Brain

I have been lying awake at night for weeks now. Almost like clockwork, three in the morning.

Instagram, the New York Times, Facebook, Die Zeit, emails, meditation apps, I know them all by heart by now. I even opened a TikTok account, under a false name of course.
My husband mumbles in his sleep or snores softly. Outside, a dog barks or an ambulance heads for the university hospital nearby. No sound escapes me, no scent drifting through the open window goes unnoticed.

At first I blamed the glass of red wine from the night before. Or the gummy bears, the sugar, maybe running too late in the day. I thought perhaps I should jog in the morning instead, that would make me tired, not wired.

But after a while it became clear. It is not the wine, not the sugar, not the jogging. It is my brain that refuses to switch off. Between three and four in the morning it seems at its most productive. It writes lists, replays old conversations and wonders whether life might have been planned differently. By seven, everything looks half as dramatic, except my body, which feels heavy and exhausted.

Sleep problems are among the most common companions of the menopausal transition. Fluctuating oestrogen and falling progesterone levels affect sleep on several levels, from temperature regulation and mood to the balance of the body’s natural circadian rhythm. Melatonin levels also decline with age, making sleep lighter and more fragile. Add to that a natural rise in cortisol in the early morning hours, just when the body should be winding down, and it is no wonder the brain switches into analysis mode.

Of course insomnia is not always purely hormonal. Stress, overload or irregular routines can play their part too. Most women experience a mix of both, physical and psychological factors that feed into each other.

That is why it is worth taking a closer look. Anyone who struggles with poor sleep for longer periods should get it checked medically, from sleep hygiene and hormone balance to thyroid or iron levels. Often the causes are mixed, and sometimes surprising.

What helps most is usually a mix of knowledge and pragmatism. Less screen time in the evening, no caffeine after four, regular movement, small rituals that calm the nervous system. And sometimes a medical conversation about hormonal support, individual and never dogmatic.

Insomnia is not a failure, it is a symptom. And sometimes it is the clearest sign that body and life have slipped out of sync.