Claudio N. Soares, MD, PhD

This brief review addresses what is currently known about sleep problems in women. The main focus is on sleep issues that are particularly relevant to reproductive stages in a woman’s life cycle and therefore potentially linked to reproductive and/or hormonal factors.

The ocurrence and severity of anxiety disorders have been correlated with fluctuations in female sex steroid levels in both epidemiological and experimental studies.1-5 Female reproductive hormones play a role not only in the development and course of anxiety disorders but also in treatment response.