Who Needs More Sleep, Men or Women?

Which member of a married couple should be allowed to hit the snooze button one more time before waking up? One might guess the man. Men tend to have physically more demanding jobs; they consume more calories and have more muscle mass to build at night. But, if you said that men need more sleep you would be wrong. The answer is, women.

Why is it that women should be allowed to sleep a little longer every night? Well, boys out there, you may not like this, but according to a study by the National Sleep Foundation, “…women tend to multi-task and use more of their actual brain than men leading to a greater need for sleep. Essentially, the more you use your brain during the day, the more it needs to rest while asleep.” The article goes on to say that, on average, women should be allowed about 20 more minutes of sleep each night, which is about the equivalent of one extra snooze.

Studies have also shown that a lack of sleep can have a larger negative effect on women as it pertains to their psychological and physical health. An article recently published in the U.K.’s Daily Mail, quoting research done at Duke University, found that “Lack of sleep can also put them [women] at higher risk of heart disease, depression and psychological problems.” The studies show that women who were sleep deprived had higher levels of a clotting factor that has been tied to stroke, various markers which can lead to thickening of the arteries and an increased risk of heart disease. The sleep deprived women also reported more symptoms of depression, hostility and anger. But the men with sleeping problems showed no increased risk of the conditions that were affecting the women.

Given the fact that the lack of sleep greatly affects women more than men, one would think the logical conclusion would be for women to sleep longer. And indeed they do. A recent study by The Statistics Canada found that women sleep, on average, about 11 minutes more a night than men. “Men sleep an average of eight hours and seven minutes per night, compared to eight hours and 18 minutes in the case of women.” So it appears that, on average, women are only nine minutes shy of where they need to be. Another interesting point made in the study found that, “While 25% of men face trouble falling asleep, the number goes up to 35% in the case of women.” Why is that? It just could be that all of the thinking they’re doing is keeping them up at night.

Sources:
National Sleep Foundation, January 2010
Softpedia, April 2008
DailyMail, March 2008