# Women With Ovulatory Cycles Have Longer Sleep, but Phases of Their Menstrual Cycles Do Not Differ in Sleep Characteristics

## TL;DR

Women who ovulate sleep longer and have more REM sleep, but sleep patterns don't change much across menstrual cycle phases.

## Contribution

Shows that ovulation, not cycle phase, is linked to sleep differences in women.

## Key findings

- Ovulatory women had longer total sleep and REM sleep compared to anovulatory women.
- No significant sleep differences were found across menstrual cycle phases in ovulatory women.
- Ovulatory status, not phase-specific hormonal changes, appears to influence sleep characteristics.

## Abstract

Duration and quality of sleep are influenced by many factors, including hormonal changes. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences between the phases of the menstrual cycle in total sleep duration and sleep stage distribution, specifically the duration of rapid eye movement (REM) phase, light, and deep sleep states and compare sleep parameters between ovulatory and anovulatory cycles.

The study involved 130 women aged 20–35 (mean = 26.2 years; SD = 4.14). Ovulation was detected using luteinizing hormone (LH) urine tests. Sleep data were collected using the Fitbit Alta HR trackers, which measured total sleep time and the duration of sleep stages. Sleep parameters were analyzed separately for each of the five phases: menstrual bleeding, follicular, periovulatory, luteal, and premenstrual using repeated measures ANOVA. Differences between ovulatory and anovulatory cycles were assessed using Student's t‐test.

Women with the ovulatory cycle slept longer and had longer REM phases compared to women without ovulation. No statistically significant differences were observed in total sleep duration or sleep stage distribution across five phases of the menstrual cycle among women with detected ovulation.

The findings suggest that ovulatory status might be associated with differences in total sleep time and REM sleep duration, whereas sleep duration and sleep stage distribution across menstrual cycle phases remain relatively constant. These results suggest that the presence of ovulation, rather than phase‐specific changes during the cycle, may play a more important role in shaping sleep characteristics.