Menopause, Sleepless Nights Make Women’s Bodies Age Faster

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Two UCLA studies reveal that menopause--and the insomnia that often accompanies it -- make women age faster.

The dual findings, respectively published July 25, 2016, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Biological Psychiatry, suggest these factors could increase women’s risk for aging-related diseases and earlier death. 

“For decades, scientists have disagreed over whether menopause causes aging or aging causes menopause,” said Steve Horvath, a professor of human genetics and biostatistics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, and a senior author on both studies. “It’s like the chicken or the egg: which came first? Our study is the first to demonstrate that menopause makes you age faster.”

In the women we studied, those reporting symptoms such as restless sleep, waking repeatedly at night, having difficulty falling asleep, and waking too early in the morning tended to be older biologically.