Do Women Need More Sleep Than Men?

Do women need more sleep than men? 

The answer is yes for a couple of reasons according to experts:

#1 is that women use more of their brains.

#2 is that women are major multi-taskers.

This could be looked at as women just being smarter than men, or it could be that men are better at having a singular focus, rather than multi-tasking, and that allows them to not get as tired from their daily activities.

Not getting enough sleep has serious consequences. Your ageless spirit is crying out for peace and calm. Your spirit craves being in flow with life. That’s one of the reasons you’ve chosen to create an ageless lifestyle for yourself.

Every area of your life functions at a higher level when you have adequate sleep on a regular basis. As women we exhaust ourselves on a different level than men, and we do it on a regular, continual basis. That creates issues that only compound until they turn into symptoms that are too big to ignore. Your relationships and the health of your ageless body are at stake when you are sleep deprived.

And if that’s not enough, sleep-deprived people show signs of aging much earlier. So potentially you could end up looking 5 or 10 years younger by getting the correct amount of sleep.

It’s a good thing there’s a quick and simple fix.

Here’s what the experts say…

SleepFoundation.org says yes according to Dr. Jim Horne , Britain’s leading expert in sleep science. In an article published in the Daily Mail , Horne explained that on average women need twenty more minutes of sleep than men. The researcher pointed out that 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.

While women need more sleep than men, many are not getting the proper amount.

There are several factors that may affect women’s quantity and quality of sleep:

• Sleep disturbances during pregnancy due to excess weight and position of the fetus.
• Difficulty sleeping during menopause due to hot flashes.
• Being woken up and moved around on the bed by the partner. (Men tend to be larger than women)
• Worrying about problems and losing sleep as a result.

The National Sleep Foundation recommends combating insomnia by getting regular exercise, setting routine bed and wake times, limiting caffeine and alcohol intake, and improving the sleep environment. If insomnia persists, women can talk to their doctors about sleep to determine other steps they can take to improve their sleep.

The Consequences of Being Sleep Deprived

According to Medical Daily, women need more sleep than men, according to a recent study. Researchers from Duke University have discovered that, compared to men, women experience more mental and physical consequences from inadequate rest. Besides giving half the population a legitimate reason to sleep in, the findings could also inspire new health recommendations for women at greater risk of heart disease, depression, and psychological problems.

The study, which was led by clinical psychologist and sleep expert Michael Breus, estimated men and women’s respective needs for sleep by assessing their ability to deal with insufficient rest. According to Breus, the experiment suggested a sharp difference between genders. “We found that women had more depression, women had more anger, and women had more hostility early in the morning,” he told reporters.

Who Needs How Much?

Many biological factors are thought to contribute to this disparity. However, some experts believe that it ultimately comes down to mental energy expenditure. Women, they say, simply use their brain more than men do.

“One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself. During deep sleep, the cortex — the part of the brain responsible for thought, memory, language and so on — disengages from the senses and goes into recovery mode,” Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England, told The Australian. “The more of your brain you use during the day, the more of it that needs to recover and, consequently, the more sleep you need. Women tend to multi-task — they do lots at once and are flexible — and so they use more of their actual brain than men do.”

It follows that, if men used their brains more during the day, they would need a couple of extra hours too. “A man who has a complex job that involves a lot of decision-making and lateral thinking may also need more sleep than the average male — though probably still not as much as a woman,” Horne said.

The Science of Sleep

Breus’ and his colleagues’ study adds to a growing number of scientific inquiries into the health outcomes of sleep deprivation. In a paper published earlier this year, researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine showed a correlation between inadequate rest and accelerated skin aging. Other studies have linked poor sleeping patterns to an elevated risk of heart disease, blood clots, stroke, and psychiatric problems.

The average American adult requires between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every day. That said, 80 percent of the population say they habitually fall short of this quota. To learn more about sleep and improving rest patterns, visit The National Sleep Foundation’s online resources.