Study, 1993
Does sleep change how the pituitary gland responds to hormonal signals?
Yes. When women were awake at night, their pituitary gland responded less to a hormone signal. When they were asleep at night, the response returned to normal, showing that sleep prevents the nighttime decrease.
What they did
12 women in the first few days of their menstrual cycle were studied three times: during the day, at night while awake, and at night while sleeping. Each time, a hormone signal (GnRH) was given and blood was drawn every 10 minutes for 4 hours to measure how the pituitary responded with LH and FSH hormones.
What they found
During the day, the pituitary gland responded normally to the hormone signal. When women stayed awake at night, the LH and FSH response was much lower. When women were asleep at night, the LH response went back to normal levels (though FSH stayed lower). When a second dose of the hormone signal was given, both LH and FSH increased much more than with the first dose.
What it means for you
Sleep prevents the pituitary from reducing its response at night. The study is very small with only 12 women and no comparison group, so the results need to be confirmed in larger studies.
12
women studied
25 micrograms
GnRH dose
10 min intervals
blood sampling frequency
About the study
- Original title
- Impact of sleep on the circadian excursions in the pituitary gonadotropin responsiveness of early follicular phase women
- Authors
- Rossmanith WG, Boscher S, Kern W et al.
- Journal
- The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism
- Year
- 1993
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 12
- What was tested
- Hormone signal injection (GnRH 25 micrograms)
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1210/jcem.76.2.8432775
Topics
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