Lack of sleep and menopause are linked to fast ageing in women : Study

A new study finds that insomnia and menopause are linked to increased risk of ageing. These women are vulnerable to ageing related diseases and  early death.

Scientists found that the process of menopause enhances the chance of developing age related diseases. The genetic clock used in this study was developed at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) in the US.

Many women fell restless due to stress, emotional insecurity. This leads to sleepless nights, waking repeatedly at night, difficulty in sleep induction, waking too early in the morning. All these conditions alter the biological sleep pattern and disturbs the biological clock leading to chronological diseases.

The  genetic "biological clock" was used for tracking the epigenetic shift in the genome.Epigenetics is the study of changes to DNA packaging that influence which genes are expressed but do not affect the DNA sequence itself, researchers said.

In the menopause study, researchers observed the process of  methylation, a chemical biomarker linked to ageing, to analyse DNA samples from more than 3,100 women enrolled in four large studies.

Researchers evaluated the biological age of cells from blood, saliva and inner side of the cheek, from 3,100 women to explore the relationship between each woman's chronological age and her body's biological age.
Researchers found that menopause increases the process of biological ageing and that insomnia, which often follows menopause, also has a clear association with age acceleration.

The findings, which suggest that both factors could increase women's risk for ageing-related diseases and earlier death, contribute to increasing evidence of the biological clock's variability, researchers said.

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