Study, 2012
Do women with severe PMS have poor sleep quality?
Women with severe PMS feel like they sleep poorly before menstruation, but measurements of their actual sleep don't show this. How they feel about sleep is strongly linked to anxiety.
What they did
18 women with severe PMS and 18 controls without symptoms had overnight sleep recordings during two phases of their menstrual cycle: once in the first half and once in the few days before menstruation. Recordings measured both what the women reported about their sleep and objective measurements including brain activity.
What they found
Women with severe PMS reported worse sleep quality before menstruation compared to earlier in the cycle, but objective sleep measurements didn't show differences. Women with PMS had more slow-wave sleep than controls at both times of the cycle. Anxiety had a strong relationship with how poorly they felt their sleep was.
What it means for you
Women with severe PMS feel like their sleep is worse before menstruation, possibly because of anxiety, even though their actual sleep may be normal. The study recorded only one night in each cycle phase and included a small number of participants, so more research is needed.
18
women in each group
30.5 years
average age of PMS group
29.2 years
average age of control group
About the study
- Original title
- Perceived poor sleep quality in the absence of polysomnographic sleep disturbance in women with severe premenstrual syndrome
- Authors
- Baker FC, Sassoon SA, Kahan T et al.
- Journal
- Journal of sleep research
- Year
- 2012
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 18
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2869.2012.01007.x
Topics
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