Sleep: there's a fairly good chance you're not getting enough. Whether it's due to the likes of stress, caffeine or late-night doom-scrolling, one in three people are reportedly not getting enough sleep, according to US figures.
Some of these people will have insomnia, a clinical condition with an exact definition: a sleep disorder that affects a person's performance the next day - for two to three nights every week, for more than three months.
Anyone can get insomnia, but women are more at risk than men. According to one study, it's 58-per-cent more prevalent among women.
Why? Although studying sleep is a complex undertaking and the causes of sleep disturbance are multifactorial - hormonal fluctuations throughout a woman's life significantly impact the quality and quantity of her sleep.
Women who have a menstrual cycle experience cyclical changes in a multitude of hormones. In the days leading up to their period, these changes appear through a variety of symptoms, collectively known as pre-menstrual syndrome (PMS) or pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), due to the declining levels of oestrogen and progesterone.
This story is from the November 2024 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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This story is from the November 2024 edition of BBC Science Focus.
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