You wake up at 2:47 a.m. again. Nothing is actually wrong — not really — but your brain decides it's time to run through every to-do list, half-remembered conversation, and vague worry you own...or sometimes, it just has a song playing on repeat. By morning, you're exhausted and a little short-tempered, and you chalk it up to stress. Or getting older. Or just... you.
But what if it's not you? What if your body is actually trying to tell you something important — and you just didn't know how to listen?
Meet This Episode's Guest
Denise Stegall is the Menopause Mentor — an international best-selling author, speaker, podcast host, and coach with more than 25 years of experience in nutrition and behavior change. She helps women replace confusion with clarity by understanding the science behind perimenopause: how their hormones, metabolism, and lifestyle are all connected. Her mission is to help women stop blaming themselves, regain confidence, and thrive throughout midlife and beyond.
Find Denise at DeniseStegall.com and on social media as @themenopausementormn.
Episode Snapshot
In this episode, S. S. Coulter sits down with Denise Stegall to have the conversation most women never got to have with their mothers. Denise explains why perimenopause can start as early as 35 — and why the first sign is rarely a hot flash. Sleep disruption, brain fog, and emotional volatility are all early messengers, and understanding them changes everything about how you see yourself.
This episode is a gentle but powerful reminder that what feels like a personal failing is often a physiological shift. And once you understand that shift, you can start working with your body instead of against it.
Top 3 Takeaways
- Protect your sleep — and pay attention when you can't. Perimenopause may start showing up in your sleep long before a hot flash ever appears. As progesterone (your calming, sleep-supporting hormone) begins to decline, you may find yourself wide awake at 2 or 3 a.m. for no apparent reason. Prioritizing sleep during this phase isn't a luxury — it's a health strategy.
- Track before you judge those "bad days." Before you decide something is wrong with you, Denise recommends journaling your symptoms for two weeks: when your mood dips, when brain fog hits, when you wake in the night. Tracking reveals patterns — and patterns give you real information to bring to your doctor instead of vague frustration.
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Pause before you pivot. Perimenopause can quietly erode your tolerance for things you've handled smoothly for years. Before you snap at a coworker, send a reactive email, or make a major career decision, build in a pause. Respond — don't react.
Get Denise's FREE menopause hormone clarity tool: https://menopausementormn.com/ menopause-hormone-clarity-tool
Denise Stegall's Take on Technology
Denise had a clear-eyed take on screens and social media: "Don't follow some YouTube person or whatever you see on social media." When you're running on broken sleep and brain fog, the scroll can feel like research — but it's more like an impulse aisle. You end up with six bottles of supplements you don't need, doubling up on ingredients, chasing solutions without understanding the actual problem.
Her counter is grounding: reach for a journal instead of your phone. Track your actual experience instead of curating a fix from a feed. The data you collect about your own body is more useful than anything trending online.
For moms also navigating this season of life, that message resonates in two directions. Protecting your own sleep and attention is one of the most powerful things you can model — for yourself and for the kids watching how you move through the world.
"Around the Dinner Table" Prompts
"Has there ever been a day when you felt totally out of sorts — tired, foggy, maybe a little short-tempered — and you didn't quite know why? What helped you feel like yourself again?"
"What do you think it means to be kind to yourself? Can you think of a time when you (or someone you know) needed a little extra grace?"
S. S. Coulter's Pick This Week
Denise's parting advice was beautifully simple: spend time in nature, be kind to yourself, and bring more joy into your everyday life. That's the exact heartbeat behind Planet Fassa. When you're running low — on sleep, patience, or mental bandwidth — the last thing you need is a complicated activity plan. Planet Fassa's free printables and imagination-building activities give kids something joyful and screen-free to dive into, which gives you a few minutes to actually breathe.
Head to sscoulter.com/pages/the-planet-fassa and grab something for this week.
Listen to the Full Episode
If this conversation gave you even one moment of "oh — that's what's been going on," don't keep it to yourself. Share it with a friend, a sister, a coworker who's been quietly wondering why she doesn't quite feel like herself. Denise Stegall's three shifts could be the clarity someone in your life has been waiting for.
Watch the full episode on YouTube — Denise walks through each shift with warmth, honesty, and the kind of science-backed insight that makes you feel like you're finally in good company.
Subscribe to Let There Be Joy and share this episode with someone who needs a little grace today.
Your Free Joy PDF
Every episode of Let There Be Joy includes a free Joy PDF – a printable one-page guide featuring the guest's top takeaways, practical tools, and simple ways to put the ideas into action.
No fluff. No complicated plans. Just practical wisdom you can actually use this week.