If you are one of those couples who sometimes fight over who needs more sleep and sleeps in more, fight no more! Science now has the answer, and is in favor of the ladies!
Namely, according to a study, women are the ones who should be sleeping in, not men. That’s because after the scientists have examined 210 middle-aged women and men, they discovered that lack of sleep affected the women’s health greatly.
Moreover, they found that when it comes to women, poor sleep is strongly connected to heightened psychological distress and intensified feelings of anger, depression, and hostility. Contrary, these feelings were not associated with sleep disruption in men.
“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,” says Professor Jim Horne, director at the Loughborough University’s Sleep Research Center and author of the book “Sleepfaring: A Journey Through The Science of Sleep.”
So, the more you use your brain during the day, the more recovery it needs during the night, therefore the more sleep you need. And because women are known to multitask more during the day, they use more brain power than men do, so in turn – they need more sleep to function well.
“This is because women’s brains are wired differently from men’s and are more complex, so their sleep need will be slightly greater. The average is 20 minutes more, but some women may need slightly more or less than this,” adds Horne.
In other words, women do need more time to relax and sleep for their complex brains to recover. So, gentlemen, let your lady sleep in. It is essential for her.
