Menstrual disturbances and its association with sleep disturbances: a systematic review

Abstract

Background Menstrual disturbances harm women’s health, and general well-being. As growing evidence highlights the relationship between sleep and menstrual disturbances, it is imperative to comprehensively examine the association between sleep and menstrual disturbance considering the multiple dimensions of sleep. This systematic review aims to identify the association between sleep and menstrual disturbances by evaluating using Buysse’s sleep health framework. Methods A comprehensive search of the literature was conducted in PubMed, EMBASE, psychINFO, and CINAHL to identify publications describing any types of menstrual disturbances, and their associations with sleep published between January 1, 1988 to June 2, 2022. Quality assessment was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies. The findings were iteratively evaluated menstrual disturbances and their association with sleep using Buysse’s sleep health framework. This framework understands sleep as multidimensional concept and provides a holistic framing of sleep including Satisfaction, Alertness during waking hours, Timing of sleep, Efficiency, and Sleep duration. Menstrual disturbances were grouped into three categories: premenstrual syndrome, dysmenorrhea, and abnormal menstrual cycle/heavy bleeding during periods. Results Thirty-five studies were reviewed to examine the association between sleep and menstrual disturbances. Premenstrual syndrome and dysmenorrhea were associated with sleep disturbances in sleep health domains of Satisfaction (e.g., poor sleep quality), Alertness during waking hours (e.g., daytime sleepiness), Efficiency (e.g., difficulty initiating/maintaining sleep), and Duration (e.g., short sleep duration). Abnormal menstrual cycle and heavy bleeding during the period were related to Satisfaction, Efficiency, and Duration. There were no studies which investigated the timing of sleep. Conclusions/Implications Sleep disturbances within most dimensions of the sleep health framework negatively impact on menstrual disturbances. Future research should longitudinally examine the effects of sleep disturbances in all dimensions of sleep health with the additional objective sleep measure on menstrual disturbances. This review gives insight in that it can be recommended to provide interventions for improving sleep disturbances in women with menstrual disturbance.

Assessing sleep quality in elite and junior cyclists

“…In addition, 59% of the female participants were deemed as bad sleepers while men exhibited 33% of bad sleepers. It is worth considering that hormonal factors, such as the menstrual cycle, may contribute to gender differences in sleep quality ( 23 , 24 ) and sleep disorders could affect the menstrual cycle ( 25 ). However, the menstrual cycle of the females was not controlled in this study and consequently, this is speculative.…”

Relationship between the floating toe and the center-of-pressure position in an upright posture among students

“…Wunsch et al 22 ) indicated that physical activity and exercise may be able to buffer the negative effects of stress on health-related outcomes. Also, a recent systematic review concluded that poor sleep satisfaction and efficiency, sleepiness during waking hours, and shorter sleep duration were associated with menstrual disturbances including premenstrual syndrome, dysmenorrhea, abnormal menstrual cycle, and heavy bleeding during periods 23 ) . For these reasons, future research can benefit from consideration of these relating points.…”

Relationships between Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS) and Diet Composition, Dietary Patterns and Eating Behaviors

“…Importantly, due to feelings of embarrassment, on rare occasions, women may choose to request sick leave and disclose their PMS symptoms, primarily because of concerns about the appropriateness of taking time off work [ 159 ]. A large case-control study showed a higher prevalence of productivity-related impairments in the PMS group than in the group without PMS [ 160 ]. PMS also affects sleep quality.…”