RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SEVERITY OF PERIMENSTRUAL SYMPTOMS AND SLEEPING QUALITY AMONG FEMALE JAPANESE COLLEGIATE STUDENTS

S. Oda¹, N. Maeda¹, M. Komiya¹, R. Mizuta¹, H. Esaki¹, Y. Urabe¹

¹Hiroshima University, Department of Sports Rehabilitation, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima City, Japan

Background: About 80% of Japanese women suffer from perimenstrual symptoms for example abdominal pain, depression, and decreased concentration (Sakamoto, 2014). There are various factors that affect perimenstrual symptoms such as exercise habits and meals. Sleeping occupies a lot of time in a day. So, sleeping has a significant influence on physical and mental conditions. The previous study said that the severity of perimenstrual symptoms is higher in those who sleep less (Kazama et al., 2015). Although not only sleeping time but also quality is important, the relationship between sleeping quality and perimenstrual symptoms has not been fully clarified.

Purpose: This study aimed to determine whether sleeping quality affects perimenstrual symptoms for female college students who tend to disrupt their sleeping habits by living alone and working part-time.

Methods: This survey was conducted among 371 female college students using google form services from July 1 through July 20, 2022. We used Menstrual Distress Questionnaire (MDQ) to assess premenstrual and during menstrual symptoms. And,Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Japanese version (PSQI-J) was used to assess sleeping quality. The participants were divided into two groups based on a cutoff value for PSQI-J, less than 6 points was defined as the normal sleeping quality group (normal group), and more than 6 points was defined as the less sleeping quality group (less group).Differences between the normal group and the less group were detected using the Mann-Whitney U-test after confirming the normality. The statistical significance was set at 5%.

Results: 63 female college students responded to this survey (response rate=17.5%). Among them, they were divided into the normal group (n=33) or the less group (n=30). MDQ scores of premenstrual weresignificantly higher in the less group than in the normal group (the normal group：49.9±12.9 points, the less group：70.7±28.9 points). MDQ scores during menstruation were significantly higher in the less group than in the normal group (the normal group：53.5±14.9 points, the less group：78.2±31.0 points).

Conclusions: In this study, we showed the severity of perimenstrual symptoms was higher among those with less sleeping quality. We think the reason is that decreased melatonin due to less sleeping quality(Ando et al., 2020). Melatonin has a role in regulating the secretion of female hormones. Hence, the decrease in melatonin secretion may have caused a disturbance in the regulatory mechanism of female hormone levels, resulting in the worsening of the symptoms. From this study, improving sleeping quality may be one solution to reduce perimenstrual symptoms in female college students. Prospect for the future, we would like to track menstrual cycle and sleeping quality over time.

Implications: Sleeping quality was associated with perimenstrual symptoms, suggesting the need to focus on sleeping quality when considering reduction of perimenstrual symptoms.

Funding acknowledgements: We have no funding acknowledgement in this study.

Keywords:
Perimenstrual symptom
Sleeping quality
Female college students

Topics:
Pelvic, sexual and reproductive health
Health promotion & wellbeing/healthy ageing/physical activity

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Hiroshima University

Committee: The Ethical Committee for Epidemiology of Hiroshima University

Ethics number: E-3791