Women need more sleep than men, according to study

sleep, woman sleeping,
Women need more sleep than men, according to study

According to researchers from Duke University, women require more sleep than men!

The reason behind it? Women experience more mental and physical consequences from inadequate rest than men do.

The study was led by clinical psychologist and sleep expert Michael Breus, and estimated men and women’s respective needs for sleep by assessing their ability to deal and cope with insufficient rest. The results of the experiment showed a sharp difference between the genders, with Breus commenting on the findings:

“We found that women had more depression, women had more anger, and women had more hostility early in the morning.”

The biological factor that contributes to this result is mental energy expenditure, as women, they say, simply use their brain more than men do.

Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England, told The Australian:

“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. 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.”

For the men- Horne also said that having a complex job does affect their need for sleep 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.”

There you go ladies, your scientific excuse for a lie in is sorted forever more. (About time we say!)

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