I've read several things that really only credit hot flashes, night sweats, and period irregularities to menopause, and the other bazillion symptoms are blamed on disturbed sleep from the night sweats.
I thought this was nonsense, as I am not getting night sweats now, and when I had them, awful as they were, I felt much better than I do now. I do have trouble falling asleep sometimes, but other than that, I'm a good sleeper. Or so I thought. I've realized the past few days that my sleep quality is not good. I think it's been bad for sometime, but ironically, I was too tired to notice. In my 20s, I frequently had sleep paralysis experiences. Recently I've been waking in the night or early morning feeling that the bed is shaking or vibrating. I thought this was menopause internal tremors that I occasionally see mentioned on the internet. I went to searching again and found it may relate to hypnogogic sleep problems, or sleep paralysis. This vibration sensation is very different from the suffocating feelings I had in my 20s, but it's a relief to know what it is, and that perhaps it's affecting me the same as night sweats would (turning me into an emotional mess).
So, maybe there's another piece of my puzzle. Tomorrow is my first followup since starting hrt. I'm hoping he'll agree to a slight dose increase from .375 to .5. I think that's a small enough increase and small enough dose that I should be able to tell for sure if it's helping me. And if that doesn't help, goodness, I don't want to think about more weeks and months of trying to sort this mess. I can see why so many give up on hrt early on. I hope a small increase will help.
