" We don’t really know how hormonal changes affect the brain, but what we do know is that hormones affect women in a lot of ways. For example, they interfere with sleep and we know that sleep is one of these modifiable risk factors. Often, when women are young, if they have discomfort with their periods, they may not sleep as well. Certainly during pregnancy, it can be hard to get a good night’s sleep. Then when women have children, women who are breastfeeding are sleep deprived. We realized that this continues throughout a woman’s life. Raising children decreases our sleep. We know that women who have children are more likely to be sleep deprived than men. Once the kids are raised, we become caregivers and take care of parents or ailing family members. Again, that takes a toll. It’s so difficult to quantify that effect, but we also know that women are more likely to suffer from insomnia than men are. "