Amanda Thebe is a force of nature for women who are going through menopause and want to start feeling healthy and fit in their 40s and beyond. She is a personal trainer, nutrition coach, and author of the best-selling book, Menopocalypse - How I Learned To Thrive During Menopause and How You Can Too! Through her very frank writing, hilarious social media posts, and inspirational and entertaining talks, she’s here to help you find the tools to have more energy and zest for life.
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It’s 9 o’clock at night, so it’s time to start my bedtime routine. I’m 50 years old and I need this. I stick to it like I did when my kids needed a structured routine to fall asleep.
My nightly performance looks something like this: First I have a mug of herbal tea, followed by a hot shower or bath. Next I pop a melatonin and magnesium supplement and jump into bed. The AC is blasting, and I’m in my quick-dry PJs. Next, I pick up my book and read for 30-45 minutes before I turn off the light. I pretty much avoid alcohol, caffeine later in the day, and I don’t use any electronics in the last hour before bed. I have this routine down to a fine art. And the reason? Night sweats and insomnia!
I do all of this and yet here I am—it’s 3:03 AM, and I am drenched in sweat, my heart is racing (seriously I have never had palpitations like this in my life), and my anxiety is high. And now I can’t get back to sleep.
I know you know what I am talking about. So many women tell me this is happening to them.
I am so over the shite that menopause keeps throwing my way. Or maybe it isn’t just my hormones, maybe this is a result of my battle with long COVID, as I know long COVID survivors are struggling with these symptoms too. Truthfully, I simply don’t care what the reason is; I just want this to stop.
Vasomotor symptoms of menopause are probably the most well known of all the symptoms. Approximately 70% of women experience them, and some can continue for 11 years or more. Vasomotor symptoms include hot flashes, cold flashes, and night sweats. I personally thought I had dodged that bullet. I went through eight years of perimenopausal hell, struggling with almost all of the known symptoms, but seemed to have avoided the vasomotor ones. When women would complain to me, I obviously empathized with them, but also felt such relief because I wasn’t engulfed with the hot flash hell that seemed to consume them.
Night sweats can’t be that bad, you say? Ahhh but let me tell you, they suck and they bring with them a cascade of upset that impacts all areas of my life. First I started having trouble falling asleep, but then came the ripple effect: when I did eventually fall asleep I was waking up drenched in sweat and burning up, soon followed by freezing my arse off—swiftly followed by heart palpitations and overwhelming anxiety. AY AY AY!! Then the next day kicks my butt because I am so freaking tired.
It's like a vicious cycle. When you aren’t well rested, you wake up with elevated levels of cortisol, which can kick up food cravings and zap any desire you might have had for exercise. Ultimately, you are left feeling exhausted for the rest of the day and pretty much like a useless bag of flesh.
For most women, vasomotor symptoms eventually pass, but for some, night sweats and hot flashes never leave. And there are health implications of having these nighttime hot flashes. Research suggests that women who have long term sleep disruptions and continuous hot flashes may have an increased risk of heart disease and greater bone loss than women who do not have hot flashes.
So when Embr labs introduced the Embr Wave 2 thermal device, I was keen to experiment and see if it improved my chronic sleep issues. Possibly this could be the final piece of the night sweat jigsaw puzzle.
Essentially, this is a thermal device created by some nerdy wizards from MIT that helps to regulate your body's perceived temperature. You simply wear the Wave wristband on the inside of your wrist, and then the magic happens.
With a simple press of a button or tap via the app, you can experience warm or cool sensations on your wrist, signaling via your nervous system to your brain to help change your perceived temperature. And it is all personalizable: I set mine to make it feel like the Arctic! I currently only wear mine during the night. I use an 8-hour All Night function that periodically sends cooling signals to help cool and calm me down throughout the night. It's so freaking clever—yay for science!
It took around two weeks for me to actually feel a benefit from the device, and I understand this to be pretty normal. And there is research to back this technology, where 39 menopausal women with vasomotor and sleep issues wore the device for four weeks, with two-thirds reporting that the device improved their thermal comfort and ability to return to sleep after a nighttime waking.
It's really helped to reduce the volume of night sweats I am getting, which in turn has helped the raging anxiety and heart palpitations, and the quality of my sleep. I personally feel that the calming effect of the device is the key to this being successful. And if and when I do wake up (because it does still happen occasionally) I don’t freak out anymore. I feel more at ease, and seriously, that's worth its weight in "rose gold."
And lastly, if a thermal wearable can really work, we do not want it to look like we are wearing an electronic tagging device; it has to be stylish. These things are important to middle-aged women—I know I care!
The Wave 2 is super stylish. It has such a beautiful sleek design and when worn during the day looks like an elegant piece of jewelry. I know that women in the workplace would be able to wear this and not be embarrassed by it. The people at Embr Labs have really taken the time to listen to what matters to women and applied this to the Wave 2.
Ready to try the Wave 2 for yourself? Buy it now with our 30-day satisfaction guarantee!
