Study, 2021
How does the menstrual cycle affect sleep in female athletes?
The menstrual cycle appears to affect sleep in female athletes, changing both the amount of sleep and the types of sleep stages across different phases of the cycle.
What they did
Researchers measured sleep continuously over 61 days in 19 women and 37 men using non-contact radar. In 15 of the women, they also tracked menstrual bleeding by self-report to see how sleep changed across cycle phases.
What they found
Women obtained longer overall sleep and more REM sleep than men. During menstrual bleeding days, women had more time in bed and more deep sleep. During the menstrual phase compared to the pre-menstrual phase, they had less light sleep. During the follicular phase compared to the luteal phase, they had lower sleep efficiency but more deep sleep.
What it means for you
The menstrual cycle appears to influence sleep timing and quality in female athletes, suggesting the body may need different amounts of different sleep stages at different points in the cycle. This study was small (only 19 women) and involved only endurance athletes, so the findings may not apply to all women.
19
women tracked for menstrual cycle effects
61
continuous days of sleep measurement
15
women with daily menstrual phase tracking
About the study
- Original title
- Sex differences in sleep and influence of the menstrual cycle on women's sleep in junior endurance athletes
- Authors
- Hrozanova M, Klöckner CA, Sandbakk Ø et al.
- Journal
- PloS one
- Year
- 2021
- Study design
- Study
- Participants
- 19
- What was tested
- None - observational study
- Open access
- Yes
- Read the paper
- doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0253376
Original abstract
Previous research shows that female athletes sleep better according to objective parameters but report worse subjective sleep quality than male athletes. However, existing sleep studies did not investigate variations in sleep and sleep stages over longer periods and have, so far, not elucidated the role of the menstrual cycle in female athletes' sleep. To address these methodological shortcomings, we investigated sex differences in sleep and sleep stages over 61 continuous days in 37 men and 19 women and examined the role of the menstrual cycle and its phases in 15 women. Sleep was measured by a non-contact radar, and menstrual bleeding was self-reported. Associations were investigated with multilevel modeling. Overall, women tended to report poorer subjective sleep quality (p = .057), but objective measurements showed that women obtained longer sleep duration (p < .001), more light (p = .013) and rapid eye movement sleep (REM; hours (h): p < .001, %: p = .007), shorter REM latency (p < .001), and higher sleep efficiency (p = .003) than men. R2 values showed that sleep duration, REM and REM latency were especially affected by sex. Among women, we found longer time in bed (p = .027) and deep sleep (h: p = .036), and shorter light sleep (%: p = .021) during menstrual bleeding vs. non-bleeding days; less light sleep (h: p = .040), deep sleep (%: p = .013) and shorter REM latency (p = .011) during the menstrual than pre-menstrual phase; and lower sleep efficiency (p = .042) and more deep sleep (%: p = .026) during the follicular than luteal phase. These findings indicate that the menstrual cycle may impact the need for physiological recovery, as evidenced by the sleep stage variations. Altogether, the observed sex differences in subjective and objective sleep parameters may be related to the female athletes' menstrual cycle. The paper provides unique data of sex differences in sleep stages and novel insights into the role of the menstrual cycle in sleep among female athletes.
Reproduced under CC-BY.
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