It's 3 a.m. You're awake again. Maybe a hot flash pulled you out of sleep, maybe your mind just switched on. Either way, you're staring at the ceiling doing math on how many hours you have left before the alarm.
If that sounds familiar, you're in a very large club. Sleep problems are one of the most common, and most under-discussed, parts of the menopause transition. The good news: how you move in the evening is one of the few levers you fully control. A short, intentional Pilates session after work, on your living room floor or in one of our evening Pilates classes in Bed-Stuy, may be one of the smartest ones to pull.
I know this one personally. When I went through early menopause at 36, it was often hard for me to fall asleep. And when I finally did, I'd wake up at 3 a.m. wondering what Don Draper was so frustrated about in that episode of Mad Men.
Why sleep falls apart in menopause
Researchers estimate that 40–60% of women report sleep problems during the menopause transition, alongside hot flashes, mood shifts and joint pain (Baker et al., 2018). The Study of Women's Health Across the Nation (SWAN), which followed thousands of midlife women for years, found insomnia symptoms in 31–42% of perimenopausal women in any given year, and those symptoms became more common in late perimenopause (Smith et al., 2017).
A few things are usually going on at once:
Hot flashes and night sweats. They wake you up, and in SWAN data they contributed to poor sleep even in women who slept well before the transition.
Shifting hormones. Falling and fluctuating estrogen affects body temperature regulation and sleep itself.
Stress load. Midlife is often peak caregiving, peak career, peak everything. SWAN researchers found that chronic stress predicted sleep disturbance in midlife women.
And for Black women, the picture is sharper. In the SWAN Sleep Study, Black women slept worse than white participants, both by their own reports and when sleep was measured in a lab-style setting at home, and financial strain was linked to poorer sleep on its own (Hall et al., 2009). That's not a personal failing. It's a gap, and it's one of the reasons we build the programming we build in Central Brooklyn.
"But I thought you shouldn't work out at night"
That's the old rule. The research doesn't back it up.
A 2018 meta-analysis out of ETH Zurich pooled 23 studies on evening exercise and sleep. The verdict: exercising in the evening did not hurt sleep. If anything, people spent slightly more of the night in deep sleep after an evening workout (about 21% vs. 20%) (Stutz et al., 2018).
The one exception: vigorous exercise that ends within about an hour of bedtime. People who went hard right before bed took longer to fall asleep, and their heart rates were still elevated when they lay down.
Use the talk test the researchers suggest:
Vigorous: you can't hold a conversation. Schedule it earlier in the day.
Moderate: you can talk but couldn't sing. Fine in the evening.
Gentle: you could hum along. That's the bedtime zone.
A slow, breath-led Pilates mat sequence lives squarely in that gentle zone.
What the research says about Pilates and sleep
In a randomized controlled trial published in Maturitas, 110 postmenopausal women were split into a Pilates group and a control group. After 12 weeks of Pilates, the Pilates group improved across every measure of sleep quality, with the biggest differences in sleep duration and sleep disturbances. They also saw less anxiety, less depression and less fatigue (Aibar-Almazán et al., 2019).
Two honest caveats, because you deserve them:
The women in that study were 60 and older, so it tells us most about postmenopause.
The study tested Pilates in general, not Pilates at night specifically. Nobody has run the "Pilates at bedtime in menopause" trial yet.
Put the two bodies of research together, though, and the case is strong: Pilates is linked to better sleep in postmenopausal women, and gentle evening movement doesn't hurt sleep and may deepen it. A short evening session gets you both.
Why Pilates works so well as a wind-down
It's breath-led. Every Pilates movement is paired with the breath. Slow, long exhales are one of the simplest ways to tell your body the day is done.
It releases what the day tightened. Hips, low back, chest and neck carry the desk, the commute and the stress. Gentle spinal movement and hip openers let go of it.
It's low heat. You get the movement without the sweat-soaked spike in body temperature that a hard workout brings, which matters when you're already prone to night sweats.
It builds the strength you keep. Even gentle mat work trains your deep core, glutes and back, the muscles that protect your spine and balance as estrogen drops.
Your 12-minute bedtime Pilates routine
Do this on a mat or a carpeted floor, lights low, phone across the room. Move slowly. Nothing here should make you breathless.
1. Lateral breathing (2 minutes). Lie on your back, knees bent, hands on your ribs. Inhale through your nose and feel your ribs widen into your hands. Exhale slowly through your mouth, longer than the inhale, and feel your ribs draw in. Try a 4-count inhale, 6- to 8-count exhale.
2. Pelvic curl (8 slow reps). Same position. Exhale and peel your spine off the mat one bone at a time into a low bridge. Inhale at the top. Exhale and roll down one bone at a time.
3. Knee sways (8 each side). Feet wide, knees together. Exhale and let both knees drift to one side, keeping shoulders heavy. Inhale back to center. Switch sides.
4. Single-leg knee hug (30 seconds each side). Hug one knee into your chest, other leg long on the mat. Breathe into your low back.
5. Figure-4 stretch (45 seconds each side). Cross one ankle over the opposite knee and draw both legs in. This opens the hips and glutes, which tighten from sitting.
6. Side-lying clam (10 each side). Lie on your side, knees bent, heels together. Exhale and open the top knee like a clamshell, slow and controlled. A small strength move that wakes up the glutes without spiking your heart rate.
7. Cat-cow (6 slow rounds). On hands and knees, inhale to lift your chest and tailbone, exhale to round your spine. Let the breath set the pace.
8. Child's pose with breath (1 minute). Knees wide, arms long or folded under your forehead. Breathe into your back ribs.
9. Legs up the wall (2 minutes). Scoot your hips close to a wall and rest your legs up it. Return to the long-exhale breath. Then go straight to bed.
Rather have someone else cue it? That's exactly what our evening Pilates classes are for. More on those below.
Make the routine work harder for your sleep
Give yourself a buffer. Finish your class or home routine 30–60 minutes before lights out so your body has time to settle.
Keep the room cool and your layers light. If hot flashes are part of your nights, a cooler room makes everything easier.
Be consistent before you judge it. The Pilates study ran 12 weeks. Give it at least a few weeks, four or five evenings a week, mixing classes and the home routine.
Keep strength training in your week. Evening Pilates is your downshift, not your whole program. Two to three days of strength training remain the foundation for bone, muscle and metabolic health in menopause. Our complete guide to strength training for menopause has a free plan to follow.
Talk to your provider about persistent insomnia. If you're regularly losing sleep, snoring heavily, or your night sweats are severe, bring it to your doctor. There are effective treatments, and decisions about medications or hormone therapy belong with your prescriber.
Make it a ritual: evening Pilates classes at The Fit In
A home routine is a great start. But the hardest part of a wind-down habit is actually doing it at 9 p.m. when you're tired and your phone is calling. That's where a class changes the game:
A set time ends your workday. Booking a 6 p.m. class draws a hard line between work mode and rest mode.
Someone else does the thinking. Our instructors cue your breath, alignment and pace, so your brain can finally switch off.
Small classes, real attention. You're seen, corrected and progressed, not lost in the back row.
Community. Our evening classes are full of women in the same season of life. You're not doing this alone.
You leave stronger. Every class builds the deep core, glute and back strength that protects your spine and balance as estrogen drops.
Which evening classes to book
Pilates Mat at our Beats & Barres studio (304 Malcolm X Blvd). Traditional, zero-impact mat Pilates that strengthens and stretches the core and stabilizers. Great for every level, and a perfect way to close out your Tuesday.
Pilates Reformed: Fundamentals at Pilates Reformed (410 Marcus Garvey Blvd & 248 Patchen Ave). Simple, controlled work on the Reformer, Tower and Chair in a small group. Perfect if you're new to Pilates or working around an injury, with evening options four nights a week.
This week's evening Pilates lineup:
Pilates Mat: Tuesdays at 6:00 p.m., Beats & Barres
Pilates Reformed: Fundamentals: multiple evening classes Monday through Thursday, Pilates Reformed
Your evening game plan
Two or three nights a week: take an evening Pilates class.
The other nights: do the 12-minute bedtime routine above at home.
During the day or early evening: keep your two to three strength sessions.
Book an evening Pilates class →
Not sure which studio is closest? See all our Pilates studios in Brooklyn.
And if you're navigating perimenopause or menopause right now, keep reading:
Strength Training for Menopause: The Complete Guide for Women (+ Free 4-Week Plan)
The Best Exercise for Perimenopause: Why Strength Training (and Protein) Come First
My Journey With Early Menopause and Things You Should Know
Improving Muscular Strength and Endurance Slows Bone Density Loss
This article is for education only and isn't medical advice. Talk with your healthcare provider about sleep problems, menopause symptoms, or before starting a new exercise program.
Sources
Aibar-Almazán A, et al. Effects of Pilates training on sleep quality, anxiety, depression and fatigue in postmenopausal women: A randomized controlled trial. Maturitas. 2019;124:62–67. doi:10.1016/j.maturitas.2019.03.019
Stutz J, Eiholzer R, Spengler CM. Effects of evening exercise on sleep in healthy participants: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Medicine. 2019;49(2):269–287. doi:10.1007/s40279-018-1015-0
Baker FC, et al. Sleep and sleep disorders in the menopausal transition. Sleep Medicine Clinics. 2018. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6092036
Smith RL, et al. Longitudinal study of insomnia symptoms among women during perimenopause. JOGNN. 2017;46(6):804–813. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28886339/
Hall MH, et al. Race and financial strain are independent correlates of sleep in midlife women: the SWAN Sleep Study. Sleep. 2009;32(1):73–82. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2625326
Kravitz HM, et al. Sleep trajectories before and after the final menstrual period in SWAN. Current Sleep Medicine Reports. 2017. doi:10.1007/s40675-017-0084-1