(NAPSI)-Here’s a fact that you may want to sleep on. According to the National Sleep Foundation, nearly 75 percent of women between the ages of 30 and 60 are not getting the eight hours of sleep they need.

Many women find it difficult to unwind at the end of the day and are left tossing and turning, trying to fall asleep and waking up in the middle of the night. Often blamed are hectic lifestyles filled with daily stress, anxiety and responsibilities, but there may be more to what’s keeping women up at night.

If you’re a woman between the ages of 35 and 55, you may be experiencing hormone fluctuations due to perimenopause and menopause, which can cause a number of physical and emotional changes including increased irritability, anxiety and night sweats. These changes may upset your body’s natural sleep pattern. In fact, according to a recent study, sleeplessness is the number-two complaint of menopausal women.

Researchers believe that lack of quality sleep may contribute to obesity, diabetes, immune system dysfunction as well as safety issues such as car accidents and medical errors, not to mention impaired job performance and productivity in other activities.
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