ASK THE DOCTOR: Can insomnia due to my menopause cause dementia? DR MARTIN SCURR answers readers’ health questions

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You are correct — insomnia can be a feature of the menopause in some women.

More common symptoms include night sweats, fatigue and anxiety. These are all due to the decline in oestrogen levels seen at menopause.

In terms of your concern that sleep deprivation increases the risk of subsequent dementia, this appears to be what we call an association, rather than a causal relationship.

Cause is where there is a proven link — for example, osteoporosis. The thinning of bones causes them to be less dense and mechanically weaker, so when a person falls over, their hip is more likely to break — so osteoporosis is causal of hip fracture, given the added provocative factor of a fall.

In this case, we do not know if sleep deprivation directly causes dementia, or whether the factors that cause dementia — which are multiple, ranging from genetics to smoking — are also factors that contribute to poor sleep quality.

8702449c097465d546d48c015b555a24 ASK THE DOCTOR: Can insomnia due to my menopause cause dementia? DR MARTIN SCURR answers readers' health questions

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