NOCTURNAL MICTURITION, SLEEP AND WELL-BEING IN WOMEN OF AGES 40-64 YEARS

Objective: To study the relationship between sleep and nocturnal mictu rition in women 40-64 years old. Methods: A questionnaire study was ca rried out in 3669 (6000 invited) randomly selected women in the County of Jamtland in Sweden. Questions were asked about the general state o f health, nocturnal micturition, sleep, menstruation and menopausal sy mptoms, and also about visits to doctors and the use of sleeping pills and hormone preparations. Results: The subjective evaluation of the g eneral state of health and of a feeling of contentedness and of confid ence in the future worsened with increasing numbers of nocturnal voidi ng episodes. Sleep was more strongly correlated to the number of noctu rnal voiding episodes (R(2) = 0.099; P < 0.0001) than to age (R(2) = 0 .021; P < 0.0001) or the menopause (R(2) = 0.017; P < 0.0001). Daytime sleepiness was three times more common among women with three or more nocturnal voiding episodes than among those with no nocturnal micturi tion. Women who voided three or more times in the night consulted a do ctor twice as frequently as those without nocturnal micturition and we re treated with drugs 2.5 times as often. The corresponding figures fo r sick-listing were 75 and 15 days per year, respectively. Conclusion: Frequent nocturnal micturition is common in 40-64-year-old women and impair sleep with subsequent decrease in daytime performance and gener al well-being.