Colonic motor activity in women during sleep.

The relationship between colonic motility, sleep, and arousals from sleep has never been studied in women and only once in men. The purpose of this study was to determine how sleep and arousals from sleep affected colonic motility in women during the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle. We monitored sleep and segmental colonic motility in six healthy women during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. We observed no colonic motility during sleep; during awake periods or during arousals, we observed isolated low-amplitude bursts of colonic motility. This colonic motility occurred during 25% of the arousal and awakening time. In contrast, morning awakening was associated with high-amplitude independent and related colonic motility in all colonic segments. We conclude that in women in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle, colonic motility is inhibited during sleep; colonic motility at night only occurs during arousals or awakenings from sleep.