Sex and Sex Hormone Factors Influencing Acute Alcohol Effects on Sleep Physiology

妇女酗酒和酒精使用障碍的比率正在以惊人的速度增加。等 饮酒量的急剧增加将对妇女的健康产生重大的负面影响。不幸的是，直到 最近，酗酒被认为是一个以男性为主的问题，因此对酒精的研究- 对妇女的相关伤害微乎其微。妇女健康的一个具体方面， 受酒精影响的是睡眠。大量对男性的研究表明，尽管酒精具有初始镇静作用， 它导致频繁的醒来和在后半夜中受损的快速眼动睡眠。 初步证据表明，女性也会经历类似的损伤，而且可能会更严重。 对酒精干扰睡眠的敏感性高于男性。此外，在一般人群中，妇女面临更大的风险， 失眠和睡眠障碍比男性多，部分原因是女性的睡眠对波动很敏感。 卵巢激素荷尔蒙对睡眠的影响在老年妇女中尤其明显， 生育年龄。然而，性和性激素对酒精干扰睡眠的影响在整个研究中都是一致的。 妇女的生殖寿命是未知的。在这里，我们将确定性别，月经周期的影响 阶段，和性激素对酒精干扰的睡眠在整个生育年龄范围的成年人的妇女。 健康的女性和男性（年龄21-45岁）将完成两对实验阶段，在这些阶段中，他们接受 酒精剂量（目标BrAC = 100 mg %，静脉内）或安慰剂（生理盐水）给药前8小时 多导睡眠图监测的睡眠。女性将完成一个酒精-安慰剂会话对 在月经周期的中期卵泡期和一对在黄体晚期。男人会 以匹配的间隔完成两个会话对。参与者还将完成两次为期5天的在家监测 在卵泡中期和黄体晚期的自然睡眠期和饮酒模式。 睡眠和酒精使用将通过活动记录仪、每日睡眠和清醒日记以及酒精手腕进行评估 传感器.我们假设，女性在饮酒后会比男性表现出更大的睡眠中断， 在实验室用多导睡眠描记仪和在家里用活动描记仪测量的酒精干扰睡眠， 与卵泡中期相比，在黄体晚期更为明显。我们还预计雌二醇将 与酒精干扰睡眠负相关，而孕酮将与 酒精干扰睡眠这项研究将提供有关酒精对睡眠影响的重要信息， 女性的生育年龄跨度，以及这些影响如何受到性别，月经周期， 以及性激素的波动调查结果将直接为未来旨在减少酒精的干预措施提供信息 饮酒和酒精对女性睡眠的负面影响。考虑到睡眠的广泛影响 在其他功能领域，包括认知，压力和福祉，这些干预措施将有很大的影响。 对妇女健康产生积极影响。

Rates of heavy drinking and Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) are increasing in women at an alarming pace. Such drastic increases in drinking will have a significant negative impact on women’s health. Unfortunately, until recently heavy drinking has been considered a male-oriented problem, and consequently research on alcohol- related harms in women has been minimal. One specific aspect of women’s health that may be negatively affected by alcohol is sleep. Numerous studies in men show that although alcohol has an initial sedative effect, it leads to frequent awakenings and impaired rapid eye movement sleep in the second half of the night. Preliminary evidence suggests that women experience similar impairment, and that they may be even more sensitive to alcohol-disrupted sleep than men. Further, in the general population, women are at greater risk for insomnia and sleep disturbances than men, in part because women’s sleep is sensitive to fluctuations in ovarian hormones. Hormonal influences on sleep are especially pronounced in older women of late reproductive age. However, the influence of sex and sex hormones on alcohol-disrupted sleep across the reproductive lifespan in women is unknown. Here, we will determine the influence of sex, menstrual cycle phase, and sex hormones on alcohol-disrupted sleep in adults across the reproductive age range for women. Healthy women and men (age 21-45) will complete two pairs of experimental sessions in which they receive a dose of alcohol (target BrAC = 100mg%, intravenous) or placebo (saline) one hour prior to eight hours of polysomnographically-monitored sleep in the lab. Women will complete one alcohol-placebo session pair during the mid-follicular phase of the menstrual cycle and one pair during the late luteal phase. Men will complete two session pairs at matched intervals. Participants will also complete two 5-day at-home monitoring periods of naturalistic sleep and alcohol consumption patterns during the mid-follicular and late luteal phases. Sleep and alcohol use will be assessed with actigraphy, daily sleep and wake diaries, and alcohol wrist sensors. We hypothesize that women will show greater disruption of sleep following alcohol than men and that alcohol-disrupted sleep, measured in lab with polysomnography and at-home with actigraphy, will be more pronounced in the late luteal phase compared to the mid-follicular phase. We also expect that estradiol will be negatively associated with alcohol-disrupted sleep, whereas progesterone will be positively associated with alcohol-disrupted sleep. This study will provide essential information regarding alcohol effects on sleep across the reproductive age span in women, and critically, how these effects are moderated by sex, menstrual cycle, and fluctuations in sex hormones. Findings will directly inform future interventions aimed at reducing alcohol consumption and the negative impacts of alcohol on sleep in women. Given the wide-ranging impact of sleep on other areas of function, including cognition, stress, and well-being, such interventions will have a substantial positive impact on women’s health.