A new explanatory factor was found for women’s sleep problems – It is related to eating – 2024-03-09 06:27:14

The eating behavior of middle-aged women is linked to sleep difficulties.

Such a result has been reached in a study conducted at the Faculty of Physical Education of the University of Jyväskylä.

In particular, snacking and emotional eating, or so-called emotional eating, were connected to shorter night sleep and daytime fatigue.

Sleep difficulties seem to increase clearly during menopause. This can be influenced by the hormonal changes of menopause, but also by lifestyle.

According to a press release from the University of Jyväskylä, research data on whether menopause causes sleep problems or whether their prevalence is greater in different stages of menopause is contradictory.

On the other hand, the connection between eating behavior and sleep quality during menopause has not been studied yet, so the connections between these things are not yet known exactly.

Frequent snacking is not a healthy habit. ADOBE STOCK / AOP

A fifth slept badly

— Since the female sex hormone estrogen is involved in regulating the feeling of satiety, there may be changes in eating behavior during menopause, which could also be reflected in sleep behavior, describes a doctoral researcher working at the Gerontology Research Center Hannamari Lankila in the university’s bulletin.

The purpose of the recent study was to investigate the connection between menopause and sleep behavior. In addition, it was investigated whether eating behavior is connected to sleeping behavior.

The larger ERMA survey, in which more than 1,000 central Finnish women aged 47-55 years participated, was used as the research material.

The study participants represented three menopausal groups. Some of the subjects were pre-menopausal, some were in the transitional phase of menopause, and some had already passed menopause.

More than 20 percent of the women in the study felt that their sleep quality was bad or rather bad.

The menopausal group slept the worst. Habits related to eating were found to be connected to sleep.

Snacking and emotional eating

“Based on the results, snacking and emotional eating were connected to the fact that the length of women’s sleep at night was shorter and they felt tired during the day,” says doctoral researcher Lankila.

The connection between sleep and eating behavior is probably bidirectional.

Poor sleep can make you eat more unhealthily than normal, and on the other hand, unhealthy eating can reduce the quality and quantity of sleep.

Insufficient and poor-quality sleep is directly or indirectly connected to type 2 diabetes, overweight, depression and cardiovascular diseases, among other things.

— These are all common health problems in Western countries. That is why it is important to study the connections between menopause, sleep and eating, Lankila sums up in the press release.

The study can be found in the Journal of Sleep Research.