---
title: Does less sleep lead to irregular periods in teenage girls? | Niyora
description: Yes. Girls who sleep 5 hours or less per night are much more likely to have irregular periods than those who sleep 8 or more hours. Of 801 girls studied, 15%
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/association-between-sleep-duration-and-menstrual-cycle-irregularity-in-korean-2017/
---

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- Does less sleep lead to irregular periods in teenage girls?

Survey study, 2017

# Does less sleep lead to irregular periods in teenage girls?

Yes. Girls who sleep 5 hours or less per night are much more likely to have irregular periods than those who sleep 8 or more hours. Of 801 girls studied, 15% had irregular periods.

 Moderate study design

801 Korean female adolescents from the 2010-2012 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

## What they did

Researchers analyzed sleep and period data from 801 Korean teenage girls ages 12-18 from a national health survey in 2010-2012. They compared how much each girl slept to whether she had irregular periods.

## What they found

Of the 801 girls, 120 (15%) had irregular periods. Girls with irregular periods slept significantly less on average than those with regular periods. Girls sleeping 5 hours or less per day had a much higher risk of irregular periods compared to those sleeping 8 or more hours.

## What it means for you

Getting more sleep may help keep periods regular. The main limit is that girls reported their own sleep and periods, which may not be completely accurate, and this is from one country.

801

girls studied

120

with irregular periods

15%

had irregular periods

## About the study

Original title Association between sleep duration and menstrual cycle irregularity in Korean female adolescents Authors Nam GE, Han K, Lee G Journal Sleep medicine Year 2017 Study design Survey study Participants 120 What was tested None, observational study. Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2017.04.009](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2017.04.009)

## Topics

[Menstrual cycle and mood](https://niyora.com/research/topics/condition-cycle-mood/)[Sleep and insomnia](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-sleep/)[Adolescents and young people](https://niyora.com/research/topics/life-area-adolescents/)

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