--- title: Does sleep change how the pituitary gland responds to hormonal signals? description: 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 url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/impact-of-sleep-on-the-circadian-excursions-in-the-pituitary-gonadotropin-1993/ --- - [Niyora](https://niyora.com/) - [Research](https://niyora.com/research/) - [Library](https://niyora.com/research/library/) - Does sleep change how the pituitary gland responds to hormonal signals? 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. Early or limited evidence 12 women in the early follicular phase of their menstrual cycle (cycle days 3-5) ## 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](https://doi.org/10.1210/jcem.76.2.8432775) ## Topics [Sleep and insomnia](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-sleep/)[GnRH agonists and ovarian suppression](https://niyora.com/research/topics/treatment-gnrh/) Research tells you what helps on average. Niyora helps on the day it hits. Calm down, see it another way, and decide what to say, with a PMS and PMDD app built by a doctor. ## Related studies Randomised trial, 2025 Can soy isoflavone supplements help with PMS and PMDD symptoms? Survey study, 2025 How do PMDD treatments affect sleep? Randomised trial, 2018 Does sleep affect the LH hormone differently in women with PCOS versus normal women? Randomised trial, 2017 Does yoga help with PMS symptoms? Survey study, 2005 How does sleep affect hormone pulses during the menstrual cycle? Ask AI about this page Copy prompt ChatGPT ↗ Claude ↗ Perplexity ↗ Google AI Mode ↗ Grok ↗