Insomnia More Dangerous for Women
Women who’ve made peace with counting sheep instead of sleep now have something new to worry about all night long, according to sleep researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Most of us would insist that a good night’s sleep leads to good health but this particular study, recently published in the online journal, Brain, Behavior and Immunity, actually measures the ill effects of a bout of insomnia. And the data doesn’t look too good for women.
Healthy, middle-aged subjects, both male and female, joined in the research. Of the 210 study participants, none reported sleep problems, none smoked, and none of them regularly took any medications that are known to alter sleep patterns, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT) for the female study subjects.
Using a questionnaire format, participants rated their own sleeping habits during the month prior to the study. Sleep quality, as defined for the study, involves ease in falling asleep, frequent awakenings during the night, and taking longer than 30 minutes to fall asleep.
Psychological issues, including depression, hostility, anger, and social support were assessed, too.
Using blood samples, researchers measured a number of biomarkers known to be associated with heart disease and diabetes, including glucose and insulin levels; fibrinogen, important for blood clotting; and C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, two proteins associated with inflammation.
Forty percent of both men and women were identified as poor sleepers. From this point on, however, results became dramatically different.
Women who reported strong feelings of emotional distress, including depression, anger, and hostility, were categorized as poor sleepers while the same emotional issues didn’t affect the men in the same way.
The women experiencing disruptive sleep also had higher levels of all the biomarkers associated with diabetes and heart disease. Thirty-three percent of the women reporting poor sleep quality had levels of C-reactive protein high enough to be considered at high risk of heart disease.
While all three assessments of sleep quality were considered, the longer it took a woman to fall asleep, the greater the toll on her health.
Now that the biomarkers and the psychological distress have been identified as major determining factors in the sleep quality of women, the research team would like to further its studies to better understand the links between gender, sleep, and overall good health.
Source: Duke University Medical Center
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For more about women and sleep, and the ravages of sleep loss, see my new book “Insomniac,” Univ of California Press. It combines memoir, a first-hand experience of insomnia, with scientific investigation. It tells everything you want to know about insomnia… it’s very well researched, but it’s also easy to read.
The pressure over the women is stronger than men. Women have to cope with job, children and housework. It became common to steal from the sleep time in order to manage all the tasks. Stealing from the sleep is the first step to sleep deprivations which lead to more serious illnesses like insomnia and and emotional issues.
Women need to understand that they can not bring the whole world on their shoulders and to do what they can and to have life full of love and joy.