title: Sleep deprivation, cognitive performance, and hormone therapy in postmenopausal women.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. paula.alhola@utu.fi
authors.forename: Paula
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Alhola
authors.forename: Maija
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tallus
authors.forename: Mervi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kylmälä
authors.forename: Raija
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Portin
authors.forename: Päivi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Polo-Kantola
mesh_terms: 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*