---
title: Do sleep benefits for memory vary by sex and menstrual cycle phase?
description: Yes. Men's memory improved after napping, but women's did so only during mid-luteal phase, with female hormones playing a role.
url: https://niyora.com/research/papers/sex-and-modulatory-menstrual-cycle-effects-on-sleep-related-memory-consolidation-2012/
---

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- Do sleep benefits for memory vary by sex and menstrual cycle phase?

Randomised trial, 2012

# Do sleep benefits for memory vary by sex and menstrual cycle phase?

Yes. Men's memory improved after napping, but women's did so only during mid-luteal phase, with female hormones playing a role.

 Moderate study design

40 healthy young men and women (early follicular phase), plus 15 women tested at mid-luteal and early-follicular phases

## What they did

40 healthy young adults (men and women) were tested in the early follicular phase, and separately 15 women were tested in the mid-luteal and early-follicular phases. All learned a finger-tapping task and word-pair task, took a 45 minute nap, then were tested again on the tasks.

## What they found

Men performed significantly better after the nap. Women only performed better after the nap during mid-luteal phase. Only men and mid-luteal women showed increased sleep spindle activity after learning. In women, estrogen correlated with verbal learning improvement and progesterone with motor learning improvement.

## What it means for you

Sleep helps memory consolidation, but the benefit varies by sex and menstrual cycle phase. Female hormones and sleep spindle activity mediate this effect. Study was relatively small for comparing groups.

40

participants in sex comparison

15

women in cycle study

45 minutes

nap duration

## About the study

Original title Sex and modulatory menstrual cycle effects on sleep related memory consolidation Authors Genzel L, Kiefer T, Renner L et al. Journal Psychoneuroendocrinology Year 2012 Study design Randomised trial Participants 40 What was tested 45-minute nap between learning and retest Read the paper [doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.11.006](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.11.006)

## Topics

[Sleep and insomnia](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-sleep/)[Cognition, concentration and memory](https://niyora.com/research/topics/symptom-cognition/)

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