How Menopause Is Linked To Sleep Apnea?

According to the recent research, sleep apnea is usually considered more as a disorder in older men, but this is also prevalent in older women, particularly those who have reached menopausal state.

Menopause, despite of age is linked with poor sleep quality and sleep problems like sleep apnea.

These types of sleep problems are thought to be linked with hormonal functioning and also with psychological factors.

Hot flashes, the main symptom of menopause, that occur during sleep have the great ability to affect your sleep qualityby bringing you from a deeper and more restful stage of sleep to a lighter, restorative and less restful stage.

Hot flashes before going to bed can also cause insomnia. But, frequently the causes of insomnia associated with menopause are mainly due to increased anxiety and depression and these can greatly affect the time it takes to fall asleep.

In a premenopausal woman, the occurrence of sleep-disordered breathing, apnea and snoring are quite small, but these appear to rise dramatically after menopause.

But, according to the recent research, the menopausal effects on sleep apnea and snoring are mainly due to increased weight and age other than directly from changes in hormones of menopause stage.

Sleep apnea most severe in postmenopausal women:

According to the clinical researches, sleep apnea is most common in post-menopausal women. This condition is mainly due to decreased levels of female hormones. Age is also the main factor for sleep apnea.

Women below 45 years are called as pre-menopausal and women over 55 years are called as post-menopausal, but the risk is high in postmenopausal women.

But, in some cases, younger women can also face with some menopause symptoms. For example, women who have suffered with breast cancer and undergone chemotherapy will usually find themselves in menopause.

In post menopausal women, estrogen levels decline and have a greater degree of sleep disruption when compared to younger premenopausal women.

How to get relief from menopausal sleep disturbances?

Taking estrogen replacement or estrogen plus progesterone supplements reduces the risk of sleep apnea syndrome and usually improves menopausal sleep problems that are classified as insomnia. This method of estrogen improvement for sleep is a long term instead of a short term effect.

Particularly for surgical menopause and for natural menopause within the first 5 years, the supplementation of estrogen levels should be high so that it can prevent hot flashes and also sleep disturbances.

So, consider proper hormonal treatment methods to prevent sleep apnea during menopausal stage.