Sleep, Anxiety and Brain Fog: Neuroscientist Explains the Menopausal Brain | Dr Sarah McKay | Ep. 4

You wake at 3am, soaked. You forget a word mid-sentence in a meeting. You cry at things that never used to touch you. You are 46 and you are wondering whether this is menopause, ageing, or the beginning of dementia.Dr Sarah McKay is an Oxford educated neuroscientist. In this episode she explains what is actually happening.Estrogen regulates the neurons in your hypothalamus that detect body temperature. As your hormones start to fluctuate, that thermostat narrows and becomes hypersensitive. A tiny rise in body temperature now reads as an emergency, and your brain fires the sympathetic nervous system to cool you down. Asleep, you cannot act on it, so your brain wakes you. Do that for months and the rest follows. Fog. Wired and tired.