Im on day 7.
For the past 2 years I have suffered hot flashes during the day and night, especially at night / in the wee hours, fairly much 5 out of 7 nights per weeks, winter and summer. The night time ones were the worst because I would wake every time one was coming on, so I was waking up every hour. I would either a) be a grump the next day OR b) Id drop my son off to school at 9am and go home back to bed for 2 hours because of the badly broken sleep, which meant I wasn't getting a lot done during the day (errands, housework, cleaning my car, doing small household maintenance things, mowing lawns, gardening etc), the place started falling apart, and hence my life started falling apart.
I repeatedly complained to my family doctor that Im going through perimenopause (approaching menopause). He said Im a little bit young (but it is possible at my age) and my blood tests (tested my hormone levels) didn't support my theory. In saying that, blood tests are not a very good indicator of perimenopause, quite unreliable in fact.
Well, as of today, I haven't touched a drop of alcohol for almost 6.5 days, and guess what? For the past 5 nights Ive had ZERO hot flashes / sweating, night and day. And, most importantly, I have slept like a log (slept right through the night) for the past 5 nights. I wake up well rested. I still have a little trouble getting TO sleep, but when I fall asleep I generally stay asleep for at least 6 hours straight. If I do wake up, its for a wee. I go and then head straight back to bed, and I fall back asleep with 5 minutes usually.
It may be a coincidence, in that maybe my perimenopause is going through a quiet patch but Im certain the alcohol was causing it all.