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Changes in circadian sleep-wake and rest-activity rhythms during different phases of menstrual cycle

Liu Hongyan, Bao Aimin, Zhou Jiangning, Liu Rongyu

Lung Department of Geriatrics Institute, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University. Hefei 230022, Anhui, China

Abstract

The results of previous studies on the menstrual-related sleep changes were inconsistent. The menstrual-related circadian sleep-wake and rest-activity rhythms changes are still uncertain. Using actigraphic monitoring of wrist activity, we investigated the sleep-wake and rest-activity patterns of 12 normally cyclic healthy women during reproductive life. Multivariate analyses were performed during the four phases of the menstrual cycle: menstrual phase (lst to 5th day of menstrual cycle), late follicular/peri-ovulation phase (11 th to15th day), early to mid luteal phase (18th to 23th day) and late luteal phase (25th to 28th day), respectively. The variables of circadian sleep-wake pattern were similar in the four phases, except an increased tendency of the sleep latency in peri-ovulation phase compared with the early to mid-luteal phase (19±18 vs 9±6), but unfortunately no statistical significance were found (P<0.10). Concerning the circadian patterning of rest and activity, the interdaily stability (IS) in menstrual phase was significantly higher than the early to mid luteal phase (P<0.05). In early to mid luteal phase, the M10 onset time was significantly earlier compared with that of the late follicular/peri-ovulation phase (P<0.05), and the cosinor peak time was significantly earlier compared with that of the late luteal phase (P<0.05). The circadian periodogram calculated the period length of the rhythm of average woman. The average length was (24.01±0.29) h, and there was no significant difference among the four menstrual phases. The results suggest that the phase of circadian rest-activity rhythm may be modulated by the menstrual cycle, but the quantity and quality of the rest-activity rhythm have no essential different, and that menstrual cycle may have no effects on the circadian sleep-wake rhythm in normally cyclic healthy women.

Key words: Circadian rhythm;Menstrual cycle;Rest-activity;Sleep;Actigraphy

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Citing This Article：

Liu Hongyan, Bao Aimin, Zhou Jiangning, Liu Rongyu. Changes in circadian sleep-wake and rest-activity rhythms during different phases of menstrual cycle. Acta Physiol Sin 2005; 57 (3): (in Chinese with English abstract).