Multidimensional Sleep Health in Midlife Women: Associations with Menopausal Symptoms and Memory

Sleep health or ‘healthy sleep’, is a multidimensional construct, and is more than just the absence of a sleep disorder. Good sleep health is critical for supporting and maintaining optimal physical and mental health, overall wellbeing, and healthy ageing, including protecting against cognitive decline. Midlife women, transitioning through menopause often experience sleep disturbances and this has been associated with hormonal and physiological changes. Menopausal symptoms such as vasomotor symptoms (hot flushes and night sweats), as well as frequent urination and depression may impact sleep, but it is uncertain whether this relationship between sleep and symptoms is causal or bidirectional. A majority of sleep studies in women, assess sleep within a single dimension framework, and not as a multidimensional construct. Additionally, the impact of other menopausal symptoms such as physical and psychosocial symptoms, and associations with sleep health in midlife women remains unclear.