Sleeping Late at Night Affects Women’s Reproductive Health: Study

Staying awake till late night hours can harm women's reproductive health, warns a study.

Nightshifts, late meetings and minding cranky toddlers can affect women's daily sleep schedule and elevate the risk of illnesses, fatigue and stress. In a latest research, experts at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio discovered another reason why women must get their daily dose of peaceful shut eye. They found exposure to light during sleep hours affects fertility by interfering in the release of melatonin, a hormone that protects women's eggs from oxidative stress during ovulation. The hormone is produced while sleeping in the darkness and women who are sleep deprived or frequently exposed to artificial lights have lesser chances of getting pregnant.

"Every time you turn on the light at night, this turns down the production of melatonin. If women are trying to get pregnant, maintain at least eight hours of a dark period at night," said Russel J. Reiter, study author and professor of cellular biology at the University of Texas, reports the Live Science News.

"The light-dark cycle should be regular from one day to the next; otherwise, a woman's biological clock is confused," he adds.

Sleep is vital for the health of expectant-mothers and promotes fetal development. Turning on lights at night immediately disturbs melatonin levels in both mothers' and fetal brain, thereby altering the body's circadian cycle. Past clinical studies on animal models hold that inadequate sleep and too much light exposure can cause behavioral disorders in offspring. These findings inspired health experts to examine if sleep duration and amount of light exposure is associated with neurobiological disorders like autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in children.

"We have evolved for 4 million years with a regular light-dark cycle that regulates circadian rhythms. We have corrupted this with the development of artificial light, which disrupts the biological clock at night and suppresses levels of melatonin. There is a biological price to pay for disturbing the light," Reiter adds.

The authors advice women to avoid sleeping in rooms that are well-lit and choose mild yellow or red light instead of white or blue shaded bed lights, report the Daily Mail.

More information is available online in the journal Fertility and Sterility.