All cuddled up and warm under the blankets, your mind starts drifting off into sleep when all of a sudden, you’re filled with worry that you’ll wake up to a period stain on your pyjamas and sheets.
Learning how to sleep on your period without leaking can take some getting used to – and some planning.
Because there’s nothing better than a good night sleep (especially when combating PMS fatigue!), we’re sharing our favourite tips on how not to leak on your period at night.
How to Stop period leaking at night
Here are a few suggestions on how to stop period leaking at night:
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Use pads with wings
Not only do pads with wings stay in place better during all your tossing and turning throughout the night, they also protect the sides of your knickers where the wings wrap around in case your undies do shift while you’re off in lalaland. -
Change your pad right before going to bed
Changing your pad right before you go to bed ensures you get the maximum amount of absorption from your period protection. -
Use overnight pads
Overnight pads are longer in the back for extra coverage in the right places when you’re lying down. -
Get out of bed slowly in the morning
If you’re wearing a pad to prevent period leaks at night, it may be a good idea to get up slowly. Because of gravity, your menstrual blood will have pooled in your vagina instead of coming out all at once.
This means that when you get up, the menstrual fluid that collected in your vagina will come out all at once. In order to avoid a leak at this point, get out of bed slowly.
Why Sleeping On Your Period Without Leaking Is a Challenge
Now that we’ve gotten some of the tips down, let’s understand why sleeping on your period without leaking can require some finesse.
First, let’s start with the fact that you’re sleeping for a lot of hours – more than you would normally go without checking your pad or tampon.
This means that you have to make double and triple sure that you’re wearing the right protection.
Next, you’re sleeping (obvi!) – so you might not feel if you need to change your pad or tampon, which can result in surprise period leaks at night.
Then there’s the issue of angles and gravity. When you sleep, you’re lying down for an extended period of time. This means that the areas that need coverage are different than the ones when you’re going about your day – mostly vertically, we might add.
Being horizontal for so long means gravity will make your menstrual fluid fall to one side of your knickers or another.
Lastly, you shift around a lot while you sleep. This can make your knickers bunch up in different positions, which means you need a different kind of coverage if you want to avoid period leaks at night.
