Original articleMagnitude of the impact of hot flashes on sleep in perimenopausal women
Section snippets
Participants
Perimenopausal women were recruited from the San Francisco Bay Area community over a 4-year period. Women included here were participating in an ongoing study about sleep quality during the menopausal transition. The study was reviewed and approved by the SRI International Institutional Review Board, and all participants provided written, informed consent. Screening procedures for the study are fully described elsewhere (8).
All women were perimenopausal based on self-reported menstrual-cycle
Estradiol and FSH Concentrations
Women had E2 (34.7 ± 30.3 pg.ml−1, 95% CI [23.9, 41.2], n = 28) and FSH (48.9 ± 43.5 IU.l−1, 95% CI [34.4, 59.2], n = 28) levels consistent with being perimenopausal.
Quantification of Subjective and Objective Hot-Flash and Sleep Measures
Periods of being awake associated with hot flashes accounted for, on average, 27.2% of WASO on a given night, with a wide range between nights of 0%–89% (Fig. 2). An awakening was triggered during hot-flash onset in 69.4% of the 222 hot flashes identified. A total of 19.8% of hot flashes occurred without disturbing sleep in our
Discussion
We found that hot flash–associated time awake accounted for, on average, 27.2% of PSG-defined wakefulness during the night in perimenopausal women. As expected, having a greater number of objective hot flashes was correlated with a greater amount of hot flash–associated wakefulness. This index provides a measure of the magnitude of the effect of hot flashes on sleep, taking into account that not all hot flashes are associated with awakenings and that hot flashes are associated with a variable
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Justin Greco, Rebecca Carr, David Sugarbaker, David Dresser, Stephanie Claudatos, Sarah Inkelis, and Ben Mayer for their efforts in the data-collection process.
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Cited by (0)
M.d.Z. has nothing to disclose. I.M.C. reports grants (and pending grants) with Apnicure Inc. H.S.J. has nothing to disclose. F.C.B. has nothing to disclose.
This study's blood sample analysis was supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (Specialized Cooperative Centers Program in Reproduction and Infertility Research) grant U54-HD28934, University of Virginia Center for Research in Reproduction Ligand Assay and Analysis Core; and National Institutes of Health grant HL103688 to F.C.B.