The Lifecycle of Women’s Sleep: A Guide to Good Sleep Hygiene for Health Professionals

Maintaining good sleep is a crucial yet often underrated pillar of a person’s wellbeing and general health. Despite this, there is limited guidance on how and why the various phases women experience in their lifetime may impact their quality of sleep, and what can be done to improve it.

This practical and accessible guide for health professionals introduces the concept of female sleep health across the lifetime, including key stages such as menstruation, fertility, working life, birth, perimenopause, and menopause. It also addresses sleep disorders, pain, and the impact poor sleep may have on mental health.

Readers will benefit from practical and detailed strategies on improving sleep, guidance on sleep aides and technology, and signposts to when clinical intervention is needed.

Sarah Gilchrist (BSc. MSc. DProf. FBASES) spent over 20 years working in the high-performance sport industry, latterly as a Technical Lead for the UK Sports Institute and Senior Physiologist with British Rowing. Her doctorate specialised in sleep and athletic performance, and she now provides consultancy on a range of performance areas, particularly relating to sleep. She is on the advisory committee of The Sleep Charity, a member of The British Sleep Society, previous Chair of the Chartered Association of Sport and Exercise Sciences (CASES) Accreditation committee and is a High Performance Sport Accredited practitioner.