Women More Resilient to Sleep Deprivation Than Men Due to Their Sex Hormones [Studies]

Men and women deal with sleep deprivation differently. However, the latter reportedly has some advantages.

Astrocytes' Role in Sleep Deprivation in Women

Two studies examined the female rodents' response to sleep deprivation. One of the studies learned that the hormonal changes in female mice make them more resilient to lack of sleep than their male counterparts. The other study revealed that the effect of estrogen hormones on sleep in rats is moderated by a particular set of cells in the brain called astrocytes. Both research were presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, being held in Washington D.C. from Nov. 11-15.

According to Jessica Mong, co-author of one of the studies and professor of neuropharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, 35-50% of perimenopausal/menopausal women will report sleep problems, compared to roughly 15% of the general population.

Mong and her colleagues discovered that the effects of estrogen hormones on sleep may be mediated by astrocyte cells, non-neuronal cells located in the preoptic area of the brain, an area implicated in sleep regulation.

Glial cells include astrocytes (the word "glial" is derived from the Latin word "glue"). It was believed that these glial cells, similar to astrocytes, served only as structural support for the brain and its neurons. Research conducted over the last 30 years has demonstrated that this is untrue. The discovery that astrocytes have a role in controlling sleep is very new. Furthermore, the function of estrogen action oversleep is entirely new.

This implies that the astrocytes, which communicate with the sleep-regulating neurons in the [preoptic region], may be stimulated or activated by [estrogen]. This is an important discovery because it's one of the first indications of how [estrogen] can control sleep, and it could lead to the development of future targets for medications and sleep aids that work better for women. To better understand the role of estrogens in sleep disorders and identify targets for improved therapies for treating sleep disruptions in menopausal women, it is imperative that we first understand the role of estrogenic action in the sleep circuity, per Mong.

The expert added that the results are translatable to humans because mammals have highly preserved pharmacology and sleep-wake circuitry.

Female More Resilient To Sleep Deprivation

In the other study, researchers found that after sleep deprivation, female mice's gene expression altered far less than that of male mice. Over 1,100 genes were affected in male mice, and just 99 genes changed in female mice.

The authors discovered that, compared to similarly aged male mice, females seemed more resistant to changes in gene expression in the hippocampus following acute sleep using an unbiased RNA sequencing technique. Furthermore, there was no discernible difference in the hippocampal gene expression of sleep-deprived and non-sleep-deprived female mice at the proestrus stage.

The results may be due to hormonal differences supporting the other study's findings. The researchers concluded that the study clearly shows that sleep deprivation triggers sex-specific differences and that hormonal changes in female mice offer some resilience to acute sleep deprivation. However, the implications of this resilience in gene expression at the cellular or behavioral levels are still unknown.

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