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Menstrual phase affects sleep in perimenopausal women
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Trouble sleeping during certain points in the menstrual cycle is prevalent among women in the early phases of menopause, according to recent study findings published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
Researchers sought to determine how hormone fluctuations affect sleep during the luteal and follicular phases of the menstrual cycle.
“We found that perimenopausal women experience more sleep disturbances prior to menstruation during the luteal phase than they did during the phase after menstruation,” Fiona C. Baker, PhD, of the Center for Health Sciences at SRI International in Menlo Park, California, and the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, said in a press release. “Measures of electrical brain activity found that the hormone progesterone influences sleep, even at this late reproductive state in perimenopausal women.”
Baker and colleagues evaluated 20 women in the early menopausal transition; 11 had a diagnosis of insomnia. Each participant spent a night during the follicular and luteal menstrual cycle phases in a sleep laboratory. An electroencephalogram was used to measure the participants’ sleep and brain activity.
Compared with the follicular phase, all participants had higher progesterone and lower follicle-stimulating hormone levels during the luteal phase (P < .001).
During the luteal phase, participants had a lower percentage of slow wave sleep (P = .024), more awakenings (P = .003) and more arousals (P = .025) each hour of sleep compared with the follicular phase. Compared with participants without insomnia, those with insomnia had shorter sleep time (P = .012), poorer sleep efficiency (P = .034) and higher amount of wakefulness after sleep onset (P = .031) regardless of their menstrual phase.
“Menstrual cycle variation in hormones is one piece in the overall picture of sleep quality in midlife women,” Baker said. “This research can lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms behind sleep disturbances during the approach to menopause and can inform the development of better symptom management strategies.” – by Amber Cox
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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