Sex differences in sleep and influence of the menstrual cycle on women’s sleep in junior endurance athletes

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.

A Pilot Study on the Impact of Menstrual Cycle Phase on Elite Australian Football Athletes

“…Whilst there is high interest in sleep quality in sport science, due to its established link to recovery and performance [26], there is a paucity of research on MC-based changes in sleep within athletes. During menstrual bleeding and the follicular phase, female athletes spend more time in bed and more time in slow wave (deep) sleep compared to the luteal phase [27], which is in agreement with the preliminary findings in AFLW athletes in the current study. Home electroencephalography has demonstrated that female collegiate athletes had a significantly lower total sleep time, sleep efficiency and prolonged sleep latency during the first early follicular phase compared to the mid follicular phase.…”

Assessment of sleep disturbances with the athlete sleep screening questionnaire in Chinese athletes

“…In the present study, there were no significant differences found in the SDS or SDS categories by gender, sports type and sports events. These results were contradicted by the previous study, 29 where Hrozanova et al. found that female endurance athletes preferred to report poorer subjective sleep quality than male athletes.…”

“…The possible reason for this difference was the fluctuations of female hormones and the side effects of the menstrual cycle. 29 However, information about female athletes’ menstrual cycle was not collected in this study and therefore cannot be interpreted. Besides, Rabin et al.…”

Is There Evidence for the Development of Sex-Specific Guidelines for Ultramarathon Coaches and Athletes? A Systematic Review

“…Sleep plays an important role in performance, injury rates, inflammation, and recovery [49]. While only one study in this review examined sleep disorder prevalence, it had a reasonably sized female cohort (n = 95) and the findings are supported by larger studies in both ultramarathon runners and general populations [49,[80][81][82]. A meta-analysis of 29 studies found that females were 40% more likely to suffer from insomnia than males [82].…”

“…While only one study in this review examined sleep disorder prevalence, it had a reasonably sized female cohort (n = 95) and the findings are supported by larger studies in both ultramarathon runners and general populations [49,[80][81][82]. A meta-analysis of 29 studies found that females were 40% more likely to suffer from insomnia than males [82]. However, these studies largely relied on self-reported measures of sleep.…”