Daytime sleepiness in relation to gender and premenstrual symptoms in a sample of Japanese college students

Abstract

Daytime sleepiness is common in college students. In women, daytime sleepiness increases in the late-luteal phase compared with the follicular phase. In addition, women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), the severest form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS), experience severer daytime sleepiness than healthy women do. To date, daytime sleepiness has not been compared between women with PMDD and those with moderate PMS, or between men and women. Hence, this study aims to explore daytime sleepiness in college students in correlation with gender and the severity of premenstrual symptoms. We enrolled 658 Japanese college students (383 females, 275 males; age: 18–27 years) and assessed PMS and PMDD using the PMDD scale. Using the Japanese version of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (JESS), we evaluated daytime sleepiness. Furthermore, women were asked about the severity of premenstrual daytime sleepiness. In this study, 47 (12.3%), 79 (20.6%), and 257 women (67.1%) were with PMDD, moderate-to-severe PMS (PMS), and no or mild PMS (no/mild PMS), respectively. The JESS score was markedly higher in women than that in men. The JESS score was highest in those with PMDD, followed by those with PMS, and lowest in those with no/mild PMS. Furthermore, women with no/mild PMS exhibited higher JESS score than men. This study suggests that daytime sleepiness is severer in women before menstruation than in men. Furthermore, the severity of daytime sleepiness in women correlates with the severity of premenstrual symptoms. Hence, daytime sleepiness should be cautioned in women with PMS/PMDD.