0272 Sleep Loss May Mess With Premesntrual Syndromes In Dysmenorrheic Women

Abstract

Introduction: Recent EEG and fMRI studies showed that even just one night of sleeplessness tempers brain's capacity to differentiate emotion neutrality. Dysmenorrheic women, who undertake recurrent menstrual pain stimulation, often show a higher pain sensitivity and a lower sleep quality throughout the menstruate cycle (Iacovides et al. 2009; Hung et al., 2017). In view of the possible long-term effect of sleep loss on dysmenorrheic women's cognitive control of emotion, this study explored if dysmenorrheic women have higher proportion of premenstrual symdromes and their relation with sleep quality. Methods: Pittsburgh sleep quality scale (PSQI), Ford insomnia response to stress responses (FIRST) scale, insomnia severity scale (ISS) and Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS) were administered in women with and without primary dysmenorrhea (n=60/group; matched for age, age at menarche, BMI, morningness-eveningness, and menstrual cycle length). Sleep diary and daily severity scale (for premenstrual symdrome measurements) were also recored by subjects throughout the menstrual cycle. Primary dysmennorhea was diagnosed by a gynecologist with abdominal ultrasound. Results: There was no group difference in PSQI or ESS scores but the proportion of subjects whose ISI score was equal to or greater than 8 (i.e. borderline of clinical insomnia) was significantly higher in dysmennorrhic than in non-dysmennorrhic women (X2df=2 =13.87, P=0.001). The mean score of FIRST was also significantly higher in dysmennorrhic than non-dysmennorrhic women (Tdf=118=2.90, P=0.032). As regard to the sleep diary and daily severity of premenstrual symdromes, dysmennorrhic women, as compared with the non-dysmennorrhic, reported more waking after sleep onset, poorer sleep quality, lower alertness upon awakening, lower daytime energy and higher daytime sleepiness as well as a severer premenstrual symdromes across the menstrual cycle. Moreover, both subjective sleep quality and alertness upon awakening presented a significantly negative correlation with the premenstrual symdromes severity. Conclusion: The long-term dysmenorrheic effect on subjective sleep perception is confirmed to negatively relate to subjective severity of premenstrual symdromes. The perpetual crappy sleep in dysmenorrhea may compromise patient's cognitive processing, which in turns impacts their emotional reactivity to even the smallest life event.