Moms know it well: no one can sleep as deeply as a dad when a newborn cries at night. Now, a scientific study conducted on mice confirms that it’s not just dads who sleep better than moms, but men in general compared to women. Women, according to research published in Scientific Reports, tend to sleep fewer hours, wake up more frequently, and enjoy less restorative sleep compared to men.
The Study:
The researchers analyzed the sleep patterns of 267 mice. Male mice slept approximately 670 minutes (more than 11 hours) in a 24-hour period—an hour more than female mice. This extra hour of sleep might correspond to the non-REM (nREM) phase, during which the body “repairs” itself. In addition to being shorter and less deep, the females’ sleep was also more fragmented compared to the males, with shorter rest periods and frequent awakenings.
Survival of the species?
What explains these differences between the sexes? According to Rachel Rowe, one of the study’s authors, biological factors play a crucial role. “Females are programmed to be more sensitive to their environment and to respond when necessary because they are typically the ones caring for the young,” explains Rowe, who jokingly adds, “If we women slept like men, wouldn’t our species go extinct?”
Men and women (aren’t) the same:
From a scientific perspective, it’s essential that the female sex be adequately represented in sleep studies—something that hasn’t been done until now. While we know that sleep deprivation can have highly negative effects on health, are these effects the same for men and women if their sleep is already different to begin with? Perhaps, Rowe concludes, women stress unnecessarily about not sleeping enough, simply because they compare themselves to their male partners.
