Sleep deprivation, cognitive performance, and hormone therapy in postmenopausal women.
OBJECTIVE
To study the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive performance in postmenopausal women and to evaluate whether hormone therapy (HT) has a modifying effect on coping.


METHODS
Twenty-six postmenopausal women, aged 58 to 72 years (mean 64 years), volunteered for the study (HT users, n = 16; nonusers, n = 10). They spent four consecutive nights in the sleep laboratory. The cognitive tests were performed three times: after the baseline night, after one night of sleep deprivation, and after the rebound night. The cognitive measures included visual episodic memory, visuomotor performance, verbal attention, and shared attention.


RESULTS
The practice effect typically occurring in cognitive tests was blunted during sleep deprivation, which indicated deterioration of performance. At rebound, performance improved in visual episodic memory (immediate recall P < 0.01; delayed recall P < 0.05), visuomotor performance (P < 0.001), verbal attention (P < 0.0001), and shared attention (P < 0.05). HT users performed better than nonusers in the visual episodic memory test (P < 0.05) and in one of three subtests of shared attention (cancellation P = 0.040). Otherwise hormone therapy did not influence the results.


CONCLUSIONS
In postmenopausal women, sleep deprivation impaired visual functions and attention. However, this effect was not prolonged because after one rebound night the performance was improved, compared with baseline. Hormone therapy did not modify the cognitive performance during sleep deprivation.
Alhola
Paula
P
Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. paula.alhola@utu.fi
Tallus
Maija
M
Kylmälä
Mervi
M
Portin
Raija
R
Polo-Kantola
Päivi
P
D000368:Aged; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D015914:Estrogen Replacement Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D017698:Postmenopause; D012892:Sleep Deprivation / Q000150:complications*