Sleep Issues, Answered

Hi friend,

Public telephones? Gone. Blockbuster Video? Gone. The American nudist colony? On its last (bare) legs.

“Today, few buyers know how to run a nudist colony, and even fewer have an interest in doing so,” bemoans The New York Times in a fascinating piece about a scandal-ridden site north of Tampa that no one wants to purchase. The property is zoned for nudism, so most (all?) developers aren’t interested. 

As you might expect, nudist colonies attract a colorful assortment of characters, making them a challenge to manage. And these members, as pointed out by The Week more than a decade ago, are getting up there in age.

Sunshine Beach Club, the subject of the Times article, did have a potential buyer with “a plan to transform the ragtag community of about 70 people into a Christian nudist resort called Natura Family Naturist Village.” But the remaining residents revolted over the idea, and the deal fell through. It's not the only camp with a sordid past; the community of Olive Dell Ranch, one of the oldest nudist resorts in Southern California (whose owner is trying to force residents to “go textile” aka clothed), was roiled by a murder in 2024.

If you’ve seen any episodes of Neighbors, the new unscripted series from Josh Safdie, A24, and HBO, at this point you might be thinking nudist colonies sound like rich casting opportunities. But they’re way ahead of you. Because the season finale, which will air in March, does indeed feature a nudist controversy, as detailed in a review on Variety. And that was one the one that made the cut. According to executive producer Harrison Fishman, “There was a community-wide dispute in a nudist community in Florida that, the main thing was that the rules around nudity in the community were changing. There was a group of nudists who wanted the rules to be very strict — you had to be nude everywhere — and then there were others who wanted to wear clothes sometimes. That one didn’t make it on.”

There is a gonzo Jerry Springer flavor to Neighbors that’s distinctly American. It’s not just that many of these people are armed to the teeth, though they are, or how the series shows home ownership — the American dream! — can morph into an American nightmare. The doomsday QAnon preppers, the cat lady who hopes to self-publish religious literature, the failson trying his hand at suburban homesteading — it all adds up to, as Mashable puts it, “a surreal portrait of American individualism at its most belligerent.” Mister Rogers it is not.

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Your friends at Gloria

When my mom brought me home from the hospital as a newborn, she was anticipating a steady stream of sleepless nights that come along with a baby. To her surprise, I slept through the night that evening — and every evening that followed. I was the kid who kept to her bedtimes, the teen who rarely slept past breakfast, the college student who never pulled an all-nighter. My sleep prowess, though, came to an abrupt halt when I entered my 40s. Suddenly I was waking up in the middle of the night and tossing and turning for hours.

According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 50% of women aged 45-64 experience sleep disruption as they transition to menopause, but sleep issues can begin as early as our mid-30s. Friends flooded my DMs with their own tales of night sweats, insomnia, and even irritating buzzing sounds in their ear that kept them awake. 

Sleep, for many, had become totally unpredictable. “There've been periods that were really bad and other times I really don't experience it,” said Rachel León, a writer and social worker in her late 40s. “I either wake up in the middle of the night and find myself unable to sleep for hours or I have a hard time falling asleep despite being tired.”

To learn more about why perimenopause keeps us up at night, I talked to Dr. Seema Venkatachalam, partner and practice medical director of the Northwestern Specialists for Women in Chicago and an assistant clinical professor at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

What are the common sleep issues in perimenopause?

When Hillary Clinton said in 2016, “Who are you going to call at 3am?” You’re going to call any perimenopausal woman at 3am because we are going to be awake. 

For most women, it's not usually difficulties with falling asleep. If [that does happen], we have to look at our lifestyle. Are we drinking alcohol later in the evening? When was our last caffeinated beverage? Are we exercising? Do we still have children at home? Are we still working? 

Staying asleep is a different issue because of the way estrogen and the progesterone levels are fluctuating. In our twenties and thirties, our hormones are like the Appalachia Mountains. The levels are gentle rises and falls that look like bell curves. In perimenopause and menopause, they look like the Rockies — huge peaks and troughs of estrogen and progesterone. It disrupts the body's temperature regulation, therefore disrupting the natural sleep cycle. A hot flash or a night sweat can wake up a woman outside of the natural REM cycle. Each cycle takes about ninety minutes and that's typically how long it takes for a woman to be able to go back to sleep.

Another cause is sleep apnea, which is highly underdiagnosed. Do you snore? Do you have pauses in your breathing? Your thyroid should also be checked. It’s just as important to ask what are the external influences that might be influencing our sleep.

How do estrogen and progesterone help us sleep? 

Estrogen and progesterone really are side players. There are a lot of other hormones in our body that are far more influential when it comes to sleep. But estrogen does affect the hypothalamus, which is the part of the brain that regulates body temperature. It’s for that reason that we get these waves of intense heat. 

What I experience is being suddenly awake at 3am, staring at the ceiling or having the urge to go pee. What’s happening there? 

It’s normal to wake up once or twice in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom to urinate. The question is: Can I fall back asleep when I get back to bed? An increase in anxiety is a natural part of perimenopause. Somebody may say they don't feel anxious, but they find themselves perseverating on thoughts that five years ago would have been dealt with the next day. That’s because of the way estrogen works on our mood. It increases these big fluctuations, which increases anxiety. 

It's the same way PMS works. You get huge fluctuations of progesterone and estrogen in the third week of the cycle because these surges in hormones are meant to protect a potential pregnancy. But they also have the added influence on our brain that can increase anxiety, emotional changes, and irritability. That contributes to the difficulty of falling back asleep as well. The increase in anxiety during perimenopause and menopause also affects our cortisol level, which disrupts serotonin and melatonin and our sleep cycle too.

I’ve read hormone replacement therapy could help when it comes to perimenopause symptoms, including sleep. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.

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TO WATCH In the new series DTF St. Louis (out Sunday on HBO), a bunch of middle-age suburban people get on a Feeld-like sex app and one ends up dead. Early reviews are positive, and the cast — Jason Bateman, David Harbour, Linda Cardellini, Peter Sarsgaard — is great. There are also two big music docs out: one on Paul McCartney (Prime Video) and one on Elvis (in theaters).

TO SHOP Curious about creatine? Momentous Creapure Creatine is a clean, well-researched place to start. Once associated only with the weight room, creatine is now gaining attention among women for its links to strength, recovery, and cognitive support. This formula uses Creapure, the gold standard, with no fillers and third-party testing. Use code WELLPUT to 35% off. Shop it here. #partner

TO LISTEN Here’s a fun way to time travel back to the early 2000s: just put on the new Iron & Wine album Hen’s Teeth. We really like this track. Or trade warm folk for indie pop with the new Voxtrot album Dreamers in Exile. Both are out today.

TO SHOP We weren’t quick enough to grab the Eckhaus Latta x J.Crew rollneck in our size when the collaboration dropped (ugh), but there are still really cute ones in stock from designers like Collina Strada (love the peek of lace) and Tanner Fletcher.

TO TRY If you are the type of person who loves to acquire cookbooks but then struggles to cook from them, the Cookshelf app may be intriguing to you. The premise is simple: You tell the app which cookbook titles you own, and then it allows you to search your stack by recipe, by ingredient, etc. Helpful! Related: We might need to get Ella Quittner’s just-out cookbook, Obsessed With the Best (Bookshop, Amazon).

“Is it aging, or is it ADHD?” • Just a nice little essay from a man who loves his wife. • An homage to the iPod. • If you’re interested in the specific scent favored by Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy, here’s how to track it down. • Women on social media are making a point of showing their estrogen patches.

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