Hormone replacement therapy, sleep quality and psychological wellbeing

OBJECTIVE: To examine the effect of hormone replacement therapy upon sleep quality and duration in postmenopausal women. DESIGN: Randomised, single-blind, placebo-controlled trial. SETTING: Sleep research laboratory. SUBJECTS: Thirty-three healthy postmenopausal women. INTERVENTIONS: Continuous 0.625 mg conjugated equine oestrogens with 0.15 mg cyclic norgestrel taken for 12 days per 28 day cycle. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Occurrence of vasomotor symptoms, polysomnographic sleep stage measures, Stanford sleepiness questionnaire, Crown-Crisp experiential index and the cognitive failures questionnaire. RESULTS: Hormone replacement therapy results in an improvement in menopausal symptoms but not in parameters of sleep quality. Despite this, certain measures of psychological wellbeing showed significant improvement in the hormone replacement therapy group. CONCLUSION: Hormone replacement therapy results in a measurable improvement in physical and psychological welfare, the latter being independent of improvement in sleep quality.