Women may have more Sleep problems than men

MID-MICHIGAN (WJRT) - (02/22/07)--Well over half of the women you know will have some kind of trouble getting to sleep or staying asleep any given night.

Women may suffer the same sleep issues as men, but the causes can be much different.

Ask any woman and she can probably tell you exactly what a bad night's sleep or even a sleepless night is like.

Lack of sleep can take a toll on every aspect of your life, especially your health.Some can even be deadly, but in nearly every case, these problems are treatable.

Cassie Stong has suffered insomnia.

"Lie there for hours, watching the clock," she said. "Get up and get some water. Change positions, change pillows. (I) tried everything. It didn't work."

It is the experience shared by millions of women, every night, in bedrooms across America.

"They can have sleep apnea and restless legs and any of the other 70 sleep disorders that we study here. But then they have other issues because they have one ear open all through the night, listening for things, worrying about things," explained Genesys sleep technician Edward Rogers.

Sleeping with one ear open is largely unique to women and it's grouped in with stress, which is a major reason 63 percent of women suffer insomnia.

In many cases, there is much more to it.

"I thought it was all that. But I think that with the hormone imbalance, the hot flashes going on in the middle and you're stripping your clothes off and you're freezing and you're putting the covers back on ... just all of it together, I wasn't sleeping," Stong said.

Hormones can wreak havoc on a woman's sleep, especially during certain points in her menstrual cycle. It's also frequent during pregnancy when women go through menopause or in the period right before, perimenopause.

"And once you learn what treatment to take, it makes life a lot easier," explained Bonnie Guith, a nurse practitioner from Complete Care in Grand Blanc.

Complete Care tests hormone levels through saliva, which they believe gives a more accurate read on hormones than blood.

They often treat women with BHRT, an alternative to hormone therapy. But in Stong's case, the answer is Melatonin.

"I take one a night and it works. It doesn't make you drowsy the next day. I just didn't want to take sleeping pills," she said.

Thousands of people rely on prescription and over-the-counter sleep medicine. While some are not physically addicting, they can be psychologically addicting.

Where should one draw the line? When should help be sought for sleep problems?

"One or two nights of where you can't sleep isn't a big deal, but when you start getting into problems, when it goes on for a prolonged period of time over three weeks in a row, that's when it becomes more of a medical issue," Streff said.

In a lot of cases, changes to sleep hygiene can make a difference, such as going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.

Relax before bed. Try reading.

You should also avoid caffeine and only sleep in your bed, and toss that bedroom TV out.

For many women, fixing sleep disorders is not as simple as the remedies outlined above. Restless Legs Syndrome is more common in women, and sleep apnea can be a woman's problem, too.

There are two common disorders that affect a surprising number of women. One of them, Restless Leg Syndrome, gets a lot of press lately; the other is not just for men anymore.

Nothing McSexy about it, perhaps, but snoring is not just for men.

"Women aren't picked up as easily as the guys are because the guys are so noisy no one in the house can stand them," said Dr. Gregory Streff of Genesys Health System.

But make no mistake: Snoring is not always just annoying for your sleep partner. It can be a sign of potentially life-threatening problem: sleep apnea.

"I just didn't didn't think I had it," said sleep apnea sufferer Sandra Shepard.

A sleep study at Genesys revealed Shepard's sleep apnea.

"She did say that I did stop breathing a couple of times for a period of time," Shepard said.

It was a diagnosis that explained a lot about Shepard's stormy relationship with sleep.

"I didn't sleep well at night," she said. "I'd always sleep two hours real hard and then in and out the rest of the night."

This is the common refrain amongst sleep apnea sufferers. Sleep is either fitful or sufferers are tired much of the day despite a seemingly good night's sleep.

"There's five different levels of sleep that you are supposed to attain at night," said Genesys' chief sleep technician Edward Rogers.

"And if you don't have the correct percentage of a certain one of those, you can be just as sleepy as someone who does wake up all night long."

And apnea isn't the only disorder that will rob you of sleep this way. Restless Legs Syndrome will do it, too. It is an insomnia trigger that affects 20 percent of women and far more women than men.

"It feels like there is something inside you that you just can't keep your leg still, and you feel that if you move your leg that it's going to help, but it doesn't help much," said RLS sufferer Suzanne Weston Mitchell.

RLS is something millions of women suffer with, and they often have no idea there is even a name for it, much less any type of treatment. And it is not always a constant problem.

"It waxes and wanes," Streff said. "It'll get worse for a while and then get better, and get worse for a while and get better and that can make it tough for people, too."

There are a drugs out there for RLS. Requip is the first approved specifically for the disorder. It's the one Mitchell is taking these days.

"As long as I take my pill, if I'm taking it two to three hours before, I'm thankful for that," she said.

For Shepard, it's not a pill, but a CPAP machine that helps her sleep through her apnea. It is cumbersome, it is not attractive, but it seems to work.

"I didn't think I would sleep with it but I did sleep," Shepard said. "I was really surprised. I went right to sleep."