LAUSR

During the reproductive life, woman experiences changes in their hormone levels that characterize her menstrual cycle. This monthly event provides hormonal and body conditions to development of pregnancy and lactation. In addition to alterations in hormones, some women present physical and psychological complaints according to the phase of the menstrual cycle. Sleep has been reported to be deteriorated during menses; however, no conclusive results have been stated. The aim of our study was to evaluate the objective and subjective sleep during 3 different time-points of the menstrual cycle. For this study we used the São Paulo Epidemiological Sleep Study (EPISONO) database. Ninety-one women were distributed in follicular (F) phase (N=27), luteal (L) phase (N=39) and menstruation (M, N=25) and undergone a one-night polysomnography. Blood samples and women’s questionnaire data were collected to investigate hormonal levels and information about the menstrual cycle to identify the phase of the cycle during the polysomnography exam. The objective sleep parameters analyzed were: sleep efficiency, sleep latency, REM sleep latency, total sleep time, awakenings index, percentage of stage 1, 2, N3 sleep and REM sleep. The following questionnaires were applied to assess the subjective sleep: Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Insomnia Severity Index, Chalder Fatigue Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory and Epworth Sleepiness Scale. For the statistical analysis we used the Kruskal-Wallis test and post-hoc Dunn, with p< 0.05. Women in follicular phase exhibited significantly higher sleep efficiency (89.9±9.6%) when compared to luteal (83.7±12.7%; p=0.02) and menstruation (83±10.8%; p=0.008) groups. During the follicular phase the sleep latency was statistically reduced (7.1min) compared to other time-points of the menstrual cycle (L=15.9min; M=22.3min; p=0.02; p=0.03, respectively). The other objective sleep parameters and the results of the questionnaires applied did not present statistical differences during the menstrual cycle. Women in follicular phase showed better sleep than the other time-points of the menstrual cycle. The sleep latency during menstruation was 3 times longer than the follicular phase, indicating that menstruation may be one of the causes of sleep complaints in women. AFIP and CNPq.