Perimenopausal sleep disturbances may signal later-life cognitive risk

Sleep disturbances during perimenopause are associated with poorer cognitive function decades later, as suggested in a study.

Researchers used data from the St Louis Baby Tooth–Later Life Health Study and looked at 2,097 postmenopausal women without no known dementia. All participants retrospectively reported their perimenopausal sleep and rated current sleep using the Neuro-QoL Sleep Disturbance scale during one postmenopausal visit. Sleep disturbance was classified as none to slight, mild, or moderate to severe.

Cognitive function was assessed using the TestMyBrain cognitive battery and summarized as a composite Z-score.

Cognitive Z-scores were lower among participants with mild or moderate-to-severe vs none-to-slight sleep disturbances (differences, −0.07, 95 percent confidence interval [CI], −0.17 to 0.02 and −0.15, 95 percent CI, −0.29 to −0.02, respectively).

Cognitive Z-scores were similar across sleep disturbances categories among participants who were never or rarely woken by menopausal symptoms. However, sleep disturbances were associated with larger cognitive deficits among participants who were “sometimes to always” woken by menopausal symptoms sometimes to always (mild vs none to slight: −0.17, 95 percent CI, −0.28 to −0.06; moderate to severe vs none to slight: −0.31, 95 percent CI, −0.47 to −0.16).

Findings persisted in an analysis adjusted for hormone therapy or for concurrent sleep disturbances measured at the time of cognitive testing.