Perimenopause Sleep Help
I'm Tracy, an insomnia therapist. I'm also perimenopausal, and sleep great. I can show you how.
Perimenopause stole your sleep. You can take it back.
Without HRT debates, expensive supplements, gadgets, or white-knuckling it until it "passes" — just evidence-based, one-to-one help to reconnect you with your natural ability to sleep, online, wherever you are in the world.
Warm, realistic and grounded in behavioural sleep science. No fearmongering, no rigid rules, and nothing to flog.
You did everything right today. So why are you awake at 3am?
Maybe you fall asleep fine and then snap awake drenched, your brain switched on like a light. Maybe it takes hours to drop off — and the worry about not sleeping has become its own exhausting full-time job. Either way, it crept in somewhere around the change, and it hasn't left.
If any of this is your day, you're not imagining it:
- Scratchy, sandpaper eyes and a tiredness that coffee can't touch
- Forgetting words, names, why you walked into the room
- Low mood, a short fuse, anxiety that didn't used to be there
- Real fear about what the lost sleep is doing to your health and your work
- A growing, sinking belief that you'll just never sleep properly again
That last one is the heaviest. And it's the one I most want to help you put down.
"Isn't it just my hormones? Don't I just need HRT?"
Hormones absolutely shake things loose. Shifting oestrogen and progesterone, hot flushes and night sweats can knock your sleep off its rhythm — that part is real.
But here's what the fearmongering misses: once insomnia takes hold, it develops a life of its own. It stops being "just" hormones and becomes a learned pattern of arousal — your nervous system bracing against the bed, the night, the not-sleeping. That pattern doesn't fix itself when hormones settle, and it doesn't always lift with HRT either.
It's also why so many women feel they've "tried everything." The supplements, the pillow sprays, the rigid rules, the gadgets — most of them quietly feed the very anxiety keeping you awake. You can do everything and still get nowhere, because the thing that actually moves the needle is rarely on the shelf at the pharmacy.
And the evidence backs this up. In head-to-head research on menopausal insomnia, cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) outperformed HRT, antidepressants, yoga and exercise for improving sleep — and the major sleep and medical bodies recommend it as the first-line treatment. It works just as well delivered online as in person.
Sources: Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine; 2025 systematic review & meta-analysis of CBT-I in menopausal women.None of this is anti-HRT. If HRT is right for you, brilliant — keep that conversation going with your doctor. This simply works alongside it, on the part HRT often can't reach.
What we actually work on together
No magic trick — because if there were one, given how many hours women spend searching for it, it would have been found by now. Instead, we work on the few things that genuinely rebalance your sleep system.
Rebuild your sleep drive
We shift the well-meaning habitsthat quietly thin your sleep out, and deepen the sleep you do get first.
Calm the arousal
The 3am, heart-pounding, brain-on-fire feeling is the real lock on the door. We turn that threat response down, day and night — gently, in a way that fits your life.
Repair your bond with the bed
We turn the bed back from a place of struggle into a cue for sleep — the way it was before all this started.
Loosen the fear
Using CBT-I, ACT and mindfulness, we unpick the worry that not sleeping is dangerous — because that fear is the fuel, and starving it is where freedom comes from.
It's personalised to you — your symptoms, your nights, your life — never a strict rulebook copied off the internet.
What this is not
- Not an expensive group programme — this is one to one, just you and me
- Not supplements, melatonin, magnesium, sprays or gadgets — I don't sell any of it
- Not the rigid, scary, clock-watching sleep rules you've read about online
- Not a one-size-fits-all app that leaves you on your own at 3am
- Not giving up wine, dinners out, travel or the things you love
- Not a lecture — I've been the woman awake at 3am too
Warm, qualified, and in it with you
I'm Tracy Hannigan, a qualified sleep therapist — and I'm in perimenopause myself, sleeping eight-and-a-half to nine hours most nights. I had my own long bouts of insomnia, and I came out the other side using the very approaches I now teach.
You won't be handed a worksheet and left to it. This is fully guided, one to one, and grounded in the science — so you always know what we're doing and why.
Credentials snapshot
- Qualified sleep therapist working with adults with insomnia
- CBT-I and ACT-I — evidence-based treatment for insomnia
- Certified health coach specialising in behavioural change
- Trained in cognitive behavioural therapy for nightmares (CBT-N)
- Member of the British Sleep Society
- Member of the British Society for Lifestyle Medicine
- Member of the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine
Women who've found their sleep again
"Tracy suggested one small change and it wasn't long before I was sleeping better. I have my happy back."
Cindy WadeTracy The Sleep Coach"After working with Tracy my sleep was so much better — and I've started to ease off my medication."
Emily MollettTracy The Sleep CoachAfter your free call, two ways to work together
The free call comes first — no pressure, no commitment. If it's a fit, your perimenopause sleep work happens inside one of my two one-to-one programmes. We choose the right one together.
The Sleep Reboot
A focused 6-week reset. Three one-to-one calls and email support to get you sleeping again and hand you the tools to keep it that way.
Best if your perimenopause sleep needs a focused reset and you're not tapering off medication.
See the Sleep RebootThe Sleep Reframe
Full 12-week wraparound. Six one-to-one sessions plus voice-note support throughout — me in your pocket the whole way.
Best if you want more support, or you're easing off sleep medication and don't want to face it alone.
See the Sleep ReframeIs this right for you?
You may need different support first if:
Your questions, answered
I've genuinely tried everything. Why would this be different?
Because most of "everything" treats the symptom and feeds the fear. This works on the two real levers — your sleep drive and your arousal — and it's tailored to you, not pulled from a generic handout. There's strong evidence it helps even people with decades of insomnia.
Does it work online — and if I'm not in the UK?
Yes to both. We work one-to-one over video, and the research shows online delivery works just as well as in person. I'm in the UK timezone and meet people from 7am to 4pm UK time, which covers early morning across much of North America and early evening in Australia.
Will you make me follow strict, scary sleep rules?
No. The rigid clock-watching approach you've read about isn't how I work, and for many people it isn't even suitable. Everything is personalised and built to fit your real life.
I'm on HRT or sleep medication. Can I still do this?
Yes. This sits alongside whatever your doctor has you on. I'm not a prescriber and I won't touch your medication — that stays between you and your doctor — but I can support the behavioural and psychological side, including for women who eventually want to taper with their doctor's guidance.
What actually happens on the free call?
We spend about 20 minutes together. I learn a little about your sleep, you ask me anything, and you leave with a solid, evidence-based starting point — whether or not we ever work together. No pressure, no hard sell.
A note of honesty, because that's how I work: not all poor sleep is insomnia, and not everything that looks like "menopause sleep" is. If something on our call points to a different cause that would serve you better first, I'll tell you straight — helping you means knowing what's mine to help with.
You've spent enough nights awake
Let's change the direction, together. It costs you 20 minutes and your favourite drink — and you'll walk away understanding why this has been happening, and what to actually do about it.
Book your free coffee chat
No obligation, genuinely no pressure. Bring your favourite beverage and let's have a chat.
Book a free coffee chat🌳 Every call — paid or not — plants a tree.
The information on this page is for general information only and is not medical advice. Always check with your doctor before making changes to your healthcare, medication or lifestyle. Not all poor sleep is insomnia; if you have concerns about your health or sleep, please speak with your GP or a qualified healthcare professional. Last updated June 2026.
I am Tracy Hannigan, a qualified sleep therapist for adults with insomnia. I am trained in CBTI and ACTI and other evidence-based approaches to insomnia treatment, some circadian rhythm disorders and repetitive nightmares. If my assessment suggests a non‑insomnia sleep disorder, I’ll signpost you to appropriate medical or sleep clinic support.
Last Updated June 2026