Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to assess the overall clinical profile of menopausal women complaining of insomnia who were referred to a sleep laboratory.
Methods: A total of 206 menopausal women who had complaints related to insomnia were interviewed. Each participant completed a questionnaire in order to obtain data on general health, menopausal status, medications, and sleep patterns.
Results: The mean age of the participants was 55.9 years. Clinical profiles revealed that the most prevalent health problems were systemic arterial hypertension (33.9%) and osteoporosis (19%), though there was no association between insomnia and incidence of chronic disease. Our data demonstrate an overall prevalence of insomnia of 4-5 times a week in 62% of the women, with 68.9% complaining of hot flashes. However, there was no association between hot flashes and frequency of insomnia across the menopausal transition period. Only 7% of women had already undergone polysomnography. Less than 5% of the participants were undergoing treatment for menopause, while 8% were taking benzodiazepines for sleep problems.
Conclusions: This study provides evidence that insomnia in postmenopausal women was not associated with incidence of chronic disease. In addition, the majority of the participants were not undergoing treatment for menopause or for sleep disturbance.