of coke, lack of exercise and womenopause

The problem
Several factors have conspired of late to bring me to a situation where I had a thumping headache and broken sleep for 3 days followed by a mild headache and sleep deprivation (2 hrs a night) for 3 or 4 days. Once awake there was no way that I could get back to the land of nod. My joints ached/ache too. To compound things I've just been doing some experiential learning about night sweats. Come evening water just oozes from every pore in my body and I need someone walking behind me with a mop to ensure that the floor surfaces are safe for others to walk on. If you invite me to your place in the evening, throw canvas sheeting on the furniture or park me on the verandah! I've never sweated in my life. Even intense exercise barely raises a drop. So it's completely new to me. The big splash is followed by shaking and feeling intensely cold. Switching between the two goes on from late evening until the morning and is accompanied by an elevated temperature. All of this has enveloped me just in the last week.

How did this all happen?
Well I have to confess that some of this at least is self-inflicted. I was a reformed coke addict for a couple of years (the fizzy kind). Two years ago, after drinking two and a half litres a day and not sleeping, I went through a week of withdrawal headaches and gave the stuff up. Then a few months ago I had a coke and I was postively buzzing - a personality transformation. That was pretty good. So over the months it's built up again to a couple of cans - though the buzz has gone by the wayside! Again I'm not sleeping and again it has increased my anxiety. At the same time for the last couple of weeks I haven't been doing daily stretches which I know that I need to do for my back and I haven't been going to the gym or pool. And of course the third factor is my gender and age.

What to do?
1. give up coke (done as of yesterday! and currently suffering the consequent headache)
2. start stretching again (done as of a few days ago!)
(Result: slept from 12 - 8 last night. Woke up a few times, but got back to sleep again ... sleep ... it feels so good!)
3. dive into the pool again (that's hard to do when feeling achy breaky and headachy, but ... maybe tomorrow).

Caffeine and stress are triggers for symptoms of womenopause - so hopefully I'll be back sleeping regularly soon and ideally the big splash will pack up and leave too!