Women are often tasked with many things throughout the day. A lot of mothers have to work a “second shift” after their actual paying job. In fact, a study by Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development found women work longer hours than men. So if we were to guess which gender could use more sleep, its definitely females.
Related: Are Women Actually Tougher Than Men?
First in last out
Unfortunately, women get the short end of the stick when it comes to sleep in the bedroom. According to a study published in the Journal Sleep Medicine, women stay longer in bed but get less sleep. They surveyed 8,480 people between ages 45 and 90 during the years 2006 to 2007. They answered what is called the EPIC physical activity questionnaire.[1]
15 minutes longer, 11 minutes shorter
This survey asked them things such as sleep timing, nighttime sleep duration, and sleep difficulties. Only 40 percent of women reported having no sleep difficulties while a good 63 percent of the men said they had no trouble sleeping. The results show women reported spending 15 minutes more bed time than men and reported 11 minutes less sleep time. According to the survey the main cause of reduced sleep duration in women was middle insomnia, a sleep condition where the individual wakes up early and finds difficulty sleeping again.
Women can’t sleep soundly
Dr Neil Stanley, an independent sleep expert, said women may feel like its more important for their husband to get more sleep. He stated that the idea of men being the breadwinner of the family may be the reason women put his sleep above hers. “A woman will let a man snore away noisily, whereas a man will instantly wake a woman if she dares to make any noise during the night.” [2]
Aside from the obvious physical and psychological difficulties women face simply being a woman such as menstrual cycles, pregnancy and menopause, women are often faced with logistical problems. Men leave their stresses at the office, while a woman’s problem are often housebound. Basically its hard to feel comfortable at home, if your problems are at home, and with women often being the main home organizer, she is bound to have a lot of problems.
Does not reflect younger women
The main limitation of this study, however, is the fact that these results were drawn from reported statistics. Being bound by the emotional state of the individual, reported statistics are subjective. Additionally, since the age of the participants were at least 45, this study does not accurately reflect the sleeping behavior of younger women, and women who are not married.
Conclusion
The results in this study show women definitely need a way to improve the quality of their sleep. The fact that most women’s problems are located right at home is certainly a challenge. This makes psychologically distancing oneself from the problem more difficult. Aside from effective relaxation techniques and a positive mindset, communication within the household is highly essential not just in sleep but in any part of life. This ensures whatever shortage in a person’s need there may be, whether it be sleep or something else, is effectively supplemented with support and positivity.
WORKS CITED:
1. Leng, Y., Wainwright, N. W., Cappuccio, F. P., Surtees, P. G., Luben, R., Wareham, N., … & Khaw, K. T. (2014). Self-reported sleep patterns in a British population cohort. Sleep Medicine.
2. Macrae, Fiona. “Women Get Less Sleep than Men – Even Though They Spend MORE Time in Bed Read More: Http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2554098/Women-sleep-men-spend-MORE-time-bed.html#ixzz2tAiC8JIB Follow Us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook.” DailyMail. N.p., 7 Feb. 2014. Web. 12 Feb. 2014.