Summary: New research suggests that the so-called “love hormone” hormone may assist in protecting women from mood disturbances brought on by post and menstruation. Women who had higher estrogen levels before sleeping fragmentation reported fewer mood-related symptoms the day afterward in a controlled study.
Rest interruptions were shown to significantly improve oxytocin and mood disturbance, suggesting a possible buffering role. These findings highlight the potential biological role of estrogen in promoting women’s mental wellness during difficult sexual transitions.
Important Information
- After losing slumber, a higher baseline oxytocin level reduced mood disturbance.
- Effects of Sleep Fragmentation: Increased hormone levels and hormone changes caused mood to worsen.
- Clinical Potential: Postpartum and menopause may benefit from the normal modulation of estrogen.
Endocrine Society, supply
According to a study presented Saturday at the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco, California, oxygen, which is frequently referred to as” the love hormone,” may play a protective role in mood disturbances brought on by sleep loss and hormonal shifts during crucial reproductive transitions like postpartum and menopause.
Experts at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School examined the combined effects of estrogen reduction and sleep delay on hypothyroid women’s mood and oxytocin levels.
Their findings point to oxytocin’s potential ability to lessen the negative feeling effects brought on by divided sleep, an frequently overlooked side effect of sexual transitions.
According to Irene Gonsalvez, M. D., associate psychiatrist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts,” we found that estrogen levels rise in response to stress-related sleep disturbance, and that women with higher estrogen levels before disrupted sleep less feeling disruption the next day.”
These results suggest that oxytocin may serve as a natural buffer during times of physiological and emotional vulnerability.
Women usually experience trouble sleeping during the postpartum and menstrual periods, which are related to intense hormonal fluctuations. However, these issues are frequently overlooked or treated as minor problems.
The research provides fresh biological evidence that oxytocin does act as a potent protective factor and that such sleep interruptions are linked to significant changes in mental health.
38 good premenopausal ladies completed two 5-night hospital protocols, one during a normal physiological state and the other after estradiol suppression, in the study.
Experts fragmented participants ‘ rest for three nights after two nights of uninterrupted sleep to create patterns common to age and after. Throughout the entire process, mood disturbance and estrogen levels were evaluated.
Findings demonstrated that estrogen levels and mood disturbance were substantially increased after a sleepover, and that a rise in oxytocin levels before a sleepover was related to a decrease in mood disturbance the following day.
Higher levels of hormone levels were also related to higher mood disturbances that were a result of sleep disruptions the following day.
According to Gonsalvez,” Millions of women experience mood disturbances during biological transitions, but treatments frequently concentrate solely on antidepressants or hormone therapy,”
Understanding oxytocin’s ability as a normal feeling modulator may help us better promote women’s mental health in these circumstances.
The National Institute on Aging, the Dupont-Warren HMS Research Fellowship, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Connors Center WHISPR Award supported this study.
About this study on estrogen, feeling, and sleep.
Author: Colleen Williams
Source: Endocrine Society
Contact: Colleen Williams – Endocrine Society
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: The findings will be presented at ENDO2025.
