It's heartbreaking, it turns out that girls are more likely to suffer from insomnia! These few methods can help you get a good night's sleep

Do any female friends have similar experiences?

While I tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep and kept my eyes open until dawn, the family members around me fell asleep the moment their heads touched the pillow. Their sleep quality was so good that I almost wanted to wake them up and question them why they could fall asleep.

Why are women more likely to suffer from insomnia than men in the same sleeping environment? Is this an individual experience or a common phenomenon? Let's talk about it today~

female

It is easier to fall asleep

A previous study on the sleep characteristics of 1.1 million people published in Nature Human Behaviour, a subsidiary of Nature, showed that compared with men, symptoms of "difficulty falling asleep" or "early awakening" are increasing among adult women, and women use sleeping pills more frequently (the ratio of women to men using sleeping pills in the 26-40 age group is 8.6%:5.2%, and the ratio in the >65 age group is 17.5%:6.3%).

Image source: Sleepcharacteristicsacrossthelifespanin1.1millionpeoplefromtheNetherlands,UnitedKingdomandUnitedStates:asystematicreviewandmeta-analysis

Another study also showed that the prevalence of insomnia in women is 1.5 times that of men[1], and this proportion increases with age[2].

Hormonal changes are an important cause of insomnia in women. Physiological changes such as menstrual cycle, pregnancy, postpartum and menopause are accompanied by fluctuations in hormone levels, which may affect sleep [3]:

1

After menarche

After menarche, women’s sleep will be regulated by estrogen, and the instability of hormones will affect the quality of sleep. This is because estrogen is involved in the regulation of the human autonomic nervous system, and abnormal fluctuations will disrupt the original balance of breathing and blood pressure.

2

Pregnant

During pregnancy, women will experience certain physiological and psychological changes, which will affect the quality and duration of sleep. In addition, studies have shown that the total sleep time of pregnant women, especially after 6 months of pregnancy, will be significantly reduced and the sleep quality will decline.

3

menopause

During menopause, this problem becomes more serious, and more and more women will experience sleep disorders, mainly manifested in fragmented sleep and increased awakening during sleep. Studies have shown that 40% to 60% of women experience sleep disorders and insomnia during the menopausal transition.

Researchers have examined the sleep status of 72 women during the menopausal transition and evaluated the impact of menopausal hot flashes on sleep. The results showed that the total sleep time measured by polysomnography in insomnia patients was significantly less than that in the control group, with an average of 43.5 minutes less. Insomnia patients are more likely to experience menopausal hot flashes, and the presence of menopausal hot flashes is closely related to the number of awakenings per hour [4].

Chronic insomnia or lack of sleep

Increased risk of cardiovascular disease in women

Long-term insomnia or lack of sleep has many effects on women's health:

In terms of psychological state, insomnia can lead to anxiety or depression, and patients with anxiety and depression often suffer from more insomnia, which falls into a vicious circle.

In terms of physical health, insomnia not only causes fatigue, dull, dry skin, wrinkles, memory loss... More importantly, in 2024, a study published in the authoritative cardiovascular journal "Circulation" found that middle-aged women with insomnia are more likely to develop cardiovascular diseases [5].

The researchers screened 2,964 women aged 42 to 52, all of whom were in perimenopause or early perimenopause. When the experiment began, they had no cardiovascular problems. During a total follow-up of 22 years, the researchers conducted 16 sleep tests on these participants, of which 30% of the subjects had long-term insomnia, and 14% of the subjects had long-term lack of sleep, and a total of 202 of them had cardiovascular problems. The results showed that middle-aged women with persistent high-frequency insomnia had a 71% increased risk of cardiovascular problems.

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These methods

May help improve insomnia

However, insomnia is not terrible. If female friends encounter long-term insomnia problems, they can seek help from people around them in time, or seek medical treatment in time, and adopt cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia to improve sleep (for more information about cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia, you can review the previous article "Don't force yourself to sleep if you can't sleep, try these methods!") In addition, in daily life, you can also try these methods:

1. Get up at a fixed time every day and leave the bed if you can’t sleep, which strongly suggests to yourself that the bed is only for sleeping.

2. Don’t think about unhappy things before going to bed, think more about things that make you happy.

3. Make sure the room is the right temperature and free of noise. Make sure the bedroom is quiet, dark, and the right temperature. Consider using blackout curtains, earplugs, or a white noise machine to reduce distractions.

4. Through abdominal breathing and muscle relaxation methods, consciously control your own psychological and physiological activities, suggesting to yourself that it is time to go to sleep.

5. Avoid caffeine and alcohol, especially a few hours before bedtime, as they may interfere with sleep. Avoid drinking large amounts of fluids before bedtime to reduce the number of times you need to get up to go to the bathroom during the night.

6. Avoid long naps. If you need to take a nap, try not to exceed 30 minutes.

7. Reduce the use of electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets and televisions before going to bed.

I hope you have a good dream tonight.

References

[1]SuhS,ChoN,ZhangJ.SexDifferencesinInsomnia:fromEpidemiologyandEtiologytoIntervention.CurrPsychiatryRep.2018Aug9;20(9):69.

[2]WilsonSJ,NuttDJ,AlfordC,ArgyropoulosSV,BaldwinDS,BatesonAN,BrittonTC,CroweC,DijkDJ,EspieCA,GringrasP,HajakG,IdzikowskiC,KrystalAD,NashJR,SelsickH,SharpleyAL,WadeAG.Bri tishAssociation for Psychopharmacologyconsensusstatementonevidence-basedtreatmentofinsomnia,parasomniasandcircadianrhythmdisorders.JPsychopharmacol.2010Nov;24(11):1577-601.

[3]PengoMF,WonCH,BourjeilyG.SleepinWomenAcrosstheLifeSpan.Chest.2018Jul;154(1):196-206.doi:10.1016/j.chest.2018.04.005.Epub2018Apr19.PMID:29679598;PMCID:PMC6045782.

[4]BakerFC,WilloughbyAR,SassoonSA,ColrainIM,deZambottiM.Insomniainwomenapproachingmenopause:Beyondperception.Psychoneuroendocrinology.2015Oct;60:96-104.

[5]ThurstonRC,ChangY,KlineCE,SwansonLM,ElKhoudarySR,JacksonEA,DerbyCA.TrajectoriesofSleepOverMidlifeandIncidentCardiovascularDiseaseEventsintheStudyofWomen'sHealthAcrosstheNation.Circulation.

[6]Kyle,SD,Siriwardena,AN,Espie,CA,Yang,Y.,Petrou,S.,Ogburn,E.,...&Aveyard,P.(2023).Clinicalandcost-effectivenessofnurse-deliveredsleepr estrictiontherapyforinsomniainprimarycare(HABIT):apragmatic,superiority,open-label,randomisedcontrolledtrial.TheLancet,402(10406),975-98

Planning and production

Author: Ding Yu, PhD in Neurobiology

Review | Tang Qin, Director of the Science Popularization Department of the Chinese Medical Association, National Health Science Popularization Expert