Case-control study, 2010
Do women with severe PMS sleep worse and have trouble staying alert?
Women with severe PMS report more sleepiness and fatigue and perform worse on attention tasks during the premenstrual phase. However, their ability to stay awake under drowsy conditions is normal.
What they did
Researchers tested 9 women with severe PMS and 8 healthy controls in the lab during two menstrual cycle phases (mid-follicular and late-luteal). They measured sleepiness using formal tests and machines, tracked attention performance, brain activity, and mood.
What they found
During the late-luteal phase, women with severe PMS reported more sleepiness, fatigue, and other PMS symptoms. Their attention performance was worse, with more lapses and slower reaction times compared to their follicular phase and compared to controls. However, they could stay awake under drowsy conditions as well as controls. Brain activity patterns were similar between groups.
What it means for you
Women with severe PMS do experience real sleepiness and do worse on attention tasks during the premenstrual phase. However, the brain's ability to stay awake is not impaired, so the problem may be more about subjective feeling than physiological sleep changes. This is a very small study.
9
women with severe PMS
8
healthy controls
About the study
- Original title
- Daytime sleepiness, psychomotor performance, waking EEG spectra and evoked potentials in women with severe premenstrual syndrome
- Authors
- Baker FC, Colrain IM
- Journal
- Journal of sleep research
- Year
- 2010
- Study design
- Case-control study
- What was tested
- objective and subjective testing of sleepiness and attention
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2009.00782.x
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