The Sleeping Habits of Women 45+

Ask a woman over 45 years old how well she’s sleeping, and you’re likely to hear “not so well!”

Look at the results of an exclusive FabOverFifty sleep survey of 250 women and let us know if you have a great way to become a sleeping beauty.

Take This And You’ll Sleep Like A Baby!

If you have trouble sleeping through the night,  for any reason--anxiety to hot flashes–I urge you to try a product I’ve been using for almost two years that has given me night after night of glorious uninterrupted sleep I could only dream of before. It even worked the few times I had a cup of coffee after dinner; it just took a little longer to get to sleep.

I learned about Sambrosa Sweet Dreams when the brand invited me to try it in the fall of 2015. Now, I order 5 bottles at a time because I NEVER want to be without it. Vann Duke, my trainer, loves Sambrosa, too, and he won’t dare put anything into his healthy body unless the ingredients get his stamp of approval!

MY NIGHTMARES BEFORE SAMBROSA 

I’ve had sleep problems since my mid 30s, when I’d pop up in the wee hours of the morning and toss and turn, unable to get back to bed.

In an effort to deal with my wakefulness, I’ve tried all sorts of plans and potions, from getting up to work at 3 a.m., to the prescription drug Ambien, to over-the-counter liquid melatonin. Ambien knocked me out pretty quickly, but made my sleep fitful, filled my head with weird dreams (weirder than usual!) and left me feeling groggy in the morning. Melatonin takes hours to start working, so you’re out of luck if you don’t remember to take it until you’re ready to retire. (more…)

Take This And You’ll Sleep Like A Baby!

If you have trouble sleeping through the night, for any reason--anxiety to hot flashes–I urge you to try a product I’ve been using for almost two years that has given me night after night of glorious uninterrupted sleep I could only dream of before. It even worked the few times I had a cup of coffee after dinner; it just took a little longer to get to sleep.

I learned about Sambrosa Sweet Dreams when the brand invited me to try it in the fall of 2015. I wrote an article after using it for a week, and now–in 2017– I order 5 bottles at a time because I NEVER want to be without it.

Vann Duke, my trainer, loves Sambrosa, too, and he won’t dare put anything into his healthy body unless the ingredients get his stamp of approval!


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[POLL] What’s Your Sleep Routine?

Remember when you were a young girl and your parents had to say, over and over, “it’s bedtime.” You thought you’d miss something if you went to sleep, even though you were nodding off on the living room sofa. Now, you can’t wait to hit the sack, but pray you’ll fall asleep, without too much tossing and turning, and stay asleep.

Tell us about your sleep habits and see how you compare with other wonderful women!

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What’s Your Sleep Number?

The kids, at last, are adults! You’re no longer working from dawn till dusk. You finally have time to rest…yeah right! Insomnia is driving you crazy. Maybe it’s menopause, your husband’s snoring, a pee call, or worrying about your daughter’s new boyfriend with the nose piercing.

We asked how many hours of sleep you get, and these are some of your best answers.

“Most nights, I will doze for maybe 30 minutes to an hour. After five to ten days of this, I may fall asleep in the daytime for 2 to 3 hours. Then back to none. Insomnia bites the big one.”   
Sue Shackles

tired-day (more…)

Why You Need More Lavender In Your Life

Lavender shows up in more places than you’d expect—in your garden, skin creams, and even in the fancy macaroon shop that just opened around the corner. However, there’s one important place where you might not find lavender, but should, and that’s in your bedroom!

Enter FOF Valerie Bennis, the founder and president of Essence of Vali, which specializes in “essential oils.” Extracted from plants mainly through steam distillation, these oils can benefit your mood, mind, and general well-being. Products that contain lavender essential oils can help you get a great night’s sleep.

“Our sleep products are best sellers, even with hotels around the world that want to pamper their guests,” Valerie said. “The lavender plant has sedative properties in its chemistry that can impact a person’s sleep.” To honor Sleep Better Month, the Essence of Vali Sleep Kit is $30 for the rest of May (regularly $50). It includes massage and bath oil, sleep balm, soothing mist, and a sleep concentrate.

“I want to help women age gracefully through understanding the power of healthy living—lavender in the bedroom is a great place to start. Nothing gives you more energy than a great night’s sleep,” Valerie added.

A drop of the sleep concentrate on your pillowcase and/or a few sprays of mist on your bed linens is all it takes. And you can always treat yourself to a soothing bath with the massage & bath oil or receive a calming massage.

The sleep balm is easily transportable and can be dabbed above the upper lip and on pulse points. You also can spray the mist, in whatever room you’re in, to enjoy the soothing effects of lavender throughout the day. It makes a wonderful non-toxic room spray.

Besides the special price on her Sleep Kit, Valerie is offering FOF members a generous 20% off on all of her oils, which are 100% natural, hand-blended and made in the United States. Enter code FOF2014 at checkout.

Click here  to order your Sleep Kit & enjoy Valerie’s discount while it lasts!

This post is sponsored by Essence of Vali. Thanks for supporting FabOverFifty!

{Giveaway} Wicked Sheets

Win a set of Wicked Sheets bedding (Value: $129.95-$184.95)!

“Get them while you’re hot!”

…says Alli Truttman, inventor of Wicked Sheets, a company whose luxurious feeling bedding is designed for women who suffer from night sweats.

Made of the same silkweight poly-blend fabric found in athletic apparel, the sheets have special pores, just like our skin, that absorb sweat and keep us comfortable and cool throughout the night. They feel as good as sheets with thread counts of 600 to 700, are wrinkle free, come in white and breezy beige, and fit twin to California king mattresses.

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{Test This} Essence of Vali Soothing Sleep Gift Box

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valerieheadshot
Possessing healing properties dating to 1st century Greece, aromatherapy flourishes today as a form of alternative medicine that uses “essential oils,” extracted from plants by steam distillation, to benefit our mood, mind, and general well being.  Aromatherapy is not just about smell– the essential oils have a strong chemistry, which work on an emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual level.  This practice is believed to trigger smell receptors in our nose and send messages through our nervous system to our brain, which controls our emotions.

Enter below for a chance to test Valerie’s unique, lavender-based Soothing Sleep Gift Box (retail value: $72).

Where did your inspiration come from in developing a line of essential oils?
I wanted to make a difference in the way people care for themselves. My personal interest in holistic healing and my business background helped me create quality aromatic blends for health and well-being that are well priced.

What are the different products in your line?
There are 10 different formulas that each address a common condition.  I’ve studied the chemistry of each oil, which helps me create blends with unique benefits.  For example, lavender, in the sleep blend, has sedative properties in its chemistry that can impact a person’s sleep.  All of my products are totally natural and made in New York and New Mexico.

What makes Essence of Vali products special?
They are highly effective because of their purity.  Some other products have chemicals in them, but ours are natural. They are also hand-blended and brewed for several days at our aromatherapy studio, instead of made in a factory.  Additionally, people really love the way our blends smell.  Our line appeals to a cross section of people because it addresses a spectrum of issues.

Where are your products sold and what do they cost?
The line can be bought through my website and other online retailers. Prices range from $8.50 for an individual mist to $60 for a 2oz bottle of EOV’s Eau du Parfum.

What is your best-selling product?
The sleep products sell best because many people have trouble sleeping.  For example, women in their fifties can have sleep difficulties as they go through perimenopause and menopause.

Valerie’s Soothing Sleep Gift Box, includes Sleep Concentrate and Soothing Mist for your bed linens; Sleep Massage & Bath Oil, and Sleep Bedtime Balm, to dab on your upper lip and pulse points.

Is this oil it takes for a great night’s sleep? 8 FOFs will test this.

To enter to test a Soothing Sleep Gift Box, answer the question: When did you first experience sleep problems?

P.S. Want a sleep kit today? Enter code “FOF” at checkout and receive $21 OFF your sleep kit!

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‘Twas the week before Christmas…and you’re not sleeping enough!

Win a “nap sack,” including sheets, pillows, and iPod clock radio and eye pillow, to help you sleep better this holiday season, by answering in the comments below: What holiday-related tasks will you sacrifice shuteye for this week?

‘Twas the week before Christmas… and you’re not sleeping enough, says a recent study published by Sleepy’s and conducted by Toluna, an independent research service. The study shows that the “most wonderful time of the year,” is also the most sleep-deprived. Women, especially FOFs, push physical limits, sacrificing sleep for holiday chores. This past week, FOF Julianne Shannon tells us she pulled an “all-nighter” in order to turn her California home “into a  winter wonderland with faux snow and reindeer–a kind-of Santa’s Workshop motif. Then, I took my son to school and came home to have a morning nap before work.”

Julianne is not alone. More than half of women queried in the study expect to spend between one and four hours a night in December performing holiday-related tasks, cutting into crucial sleep time. The study reports that men will forfeit some sleep too, yet (no surprise here) they devote much less time to holiday chores.

According to sleep expert Robert deStefano, a woman over 50 should be getting seven to eight hours of sleep to function properly. “Throughout the year, women suffer stress-induced insomnia at a 2:1 ratio to men. That skyrockets over the holidays.”

“Many women over 50 have lower sleep efficiency, meaning that their quality of sleep is much poorer,” adds Dr. Steven Y. Park, M.D. an otorhinolaryngologist and Integrative Sleep Surgeon at Montefiore Medical Center.

“If her sleep is fragmented, the central nervous system is taxed and little stressors become magnified,” says Robert. “Stress is a primary contributor to heart disease, the number one cause of death to women in the U.S.”

Lack of sleep (quantity or quality) is known to promote weight gain by increasing your physiologic stress levels,” says Dr. Park. “It causes cravings of sugary or carbohydrate-laden foods, and metabolically makes you put on weight.”

Seven to eight hours of sleep before the holidays?! Fat chance! Here’s what the study shows that FOFs are doing instead of sleeping.

  • 46% sacrifice sleep for making or wrapping gifts

“I spent last night from midnight to 4 a.m. wrapping gifts for my 4 kids and making a dozen intricate holiday garlands for a fundraiser for our local museum,” says FOF Teri Miceli.

“I woke up from a dead sleep at midnight last night because I forgot I still had a dozen individual scrapbooks to finish and wrap for my co-workers… Was up until dawn on that one!” says FOF Tina Mulheisen.

96% put in extra hours baking, cooking, decorating or cleaning

Every year, FOF Francesca Kranzberg has a “cheesecake party” for 120 to 250 neighbors. She bakes 15 different varieties of the dessert–and non-cheesecake treats, too. “The last few days before our party I usually stay up until 2:30 or 3 a.m. finishing the baking, cleaning, etc., and arise at my usual 7 a.m. to get to work. While I always hope to get some sleep before the party, I am simply too nervous.”

“Sleepless nights start before Thanksgiving, with bread baking and prepping pie crusts,” says FOF Cathy Barrow of the cooking blog Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen. “As soon as that holiday is wrapped up, the holiday confections and cookies start. It takes two weeks to make twenty varieties (about 120 dozen) for my holiday cookie box. Lots of baking well past midnight. Plenty of mornings that start at 4 a.m., with cookies in the oven before the coffee is brewed. I mailed off all the treats on Monday, and now my holiday begins.”

 

“In addition to my normal crazy party schedule, this year I volunteered to make 700 gift boxes of white chocolate dipped and decorate pretzels, oreos and rice crispy treats–up all night with that,” says Alison Mesrop of Alison Mesrop Catering “Also made 20 flourless chocolate cakes complete with ganache frosting and glaceed fruit decor. In a sleep-deprived stupor at 3 a.m. I possessed the patience to separate prosciutto slices, painstakingly fitting into cups, baking them to make 500 crispy prosciutto cups.”

 

45% are shopping online during hours they normally sleep.
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“I stay up to 11:30 p.m. shopping for clients last minute..not for myself,” says FOF style guru Sherrie Mathieson, author of Steal This Style and Forever Cool. “Then it’s hard to unwind, as the computer light affects melatonin cycles. They say that sleep  between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. is most important, and I have sabotaged that rest time.”


Win a “nap sack,” including sheets, pillows, an iPod clock radio and eye pillow, to help you sleep better this holiday season, by answering in the comments below: What holiday-related tasks will you sacrifice shuteye for this week?

One FOF will win.(See all our past winners, here.) (See official rules, here.) Contest closes December 29, 2011 at midnight E.S.T.

{Beauty} Ask the Beauty Inventor: Clark Wolfsberger, creator of Beauty Sleep

When we sent BeautySleep to our FOF Beauty Testers, we had no idea if it would work. A beverage that promised to help you sleep better and improve your skin seemed a bit too good to be true. So we were shocked by the unanimously positive reviews. Intrigued, we called Clark Wolfsberger, President of BigQuark, the Missouri-based beverage company that manufactures the supplement to find out exactly how this powerful little potion works.



How did you come up with BeautySleep?

The three issues boomers are most concerned with are sleep, aging and beauty. We wanted to come up with something that addresses those concerns.

Why is sleep so important?
When you sleep, your body repairs and replenishes itself. Some studies show that if your body doesn’t get enough sleep, it produces more cortisol, a hormone that causes you to age faster and gain weight.

Why is sleeping more difficult as we age?
There are many reasons, but one is that, you don’t produce as much melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep.

How does BeautySleep aid sleep?
It contains melatonin to help set your sleep cycle on course. It also includes chamomile, valerian root, and gava which relax the body and brain.

How does BeautySleep fight aging?
It has antioxidants that protects skin cells. It also includes sensara, a clinically-proven anti-aging ingredient which improves skin hydration, elasticity and lipid content. Lycopene, another ingredient in BeautySleep, is anti-inflammatory. Eliminating inflammation preserves more cell life and there’s less damage to the body. Last, it contains vitamin B, which aids circulation and in turn nourishes the skin and pushes toxins out of your system.

Do you use BeautySleep?
Yes. Typically on a Sunday night, if my sleep pattern has been thrown off over the weekend.  I’ll drink it to get everything back on track.

Beauty Sleep costs $21.90 for six bottles and is available at Soft Surroundings.com