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Abstract
One of the most striking facts is the transition to eveningness in adolescence around the age of 12–14 years which seems to be associated with pubertal development and with increasing sexual hormones. As women in their transition during menopause (at approx. 50 years) experience the contrary pattern, namely the reduction of sexual hormones, one should expect a turn towards morningness during these developmental stages. Women between 40 and 55 years, who were unaffected by hormone replacement therapy, gynaecological operations or hormonal contraceptives, participated in our study (pre-, peri- and post-menopausal stages). We found that women became more morning-orientated during the transition through menopause, which is considered an effect of hormonal changes rather than of age. Sleep problems increased from pre- to post-menopause while psychological complaints were highest during the peri-menopause. Further, we found a correlation between eveningness and psychological complaints, and a correlation between sleep problems and morningness. The presence of a partner was associated with higher morningness scores and earlier bed and rise times on weekends.
Acknowledgements
The study was funded by the University of Education Heidelberg and we are extremely grateful to all women that filled in our questionnaire. We especially appreciate the collaboration of all the gynaecologists. CR and VB designed the study; VB collected the data and fed them into the computer. Both authors analysed the data and CR wrote the manuscript. We are extremely grateful to our friend Dr. med. Karl Schulze-Hagen for his support in planning the study and his help throughout, to Christian Vollmer for correcting the manuscript and to an anonymous reviewer for helpful comments.