Why do women need to sleep longer than men?

Take, for instance, Dr. Patrick Flynn, a British “hormone guru” and social media thought leader. According to him, women need an additional one to two hours of sleep each day. He believes that, in general, women should aim for 8 to 10 hours of sleep, while men need about 7 to 8 hours. Dr. Flynn explains this difference by pointing to hormonal fluctuations between men and women, which means that a lack of sleep “causes more stress for the female body than for the male.”

Meanwhile, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that all adults aged 18 to 60 get at least seven hours of sleep per night, regardless of gender.

What do other researchers say about this?

A team of scientists from the University of Michigan analyzed the minute-by-minute sleep duration of working-age American adults. They utilized data from the National Time Use Survey conducted between 2003 and 2007.

They found that women slept about 11 minutes longer than men. The researchers attributed this gap to “work and family responsibilities.” Women tend to spend more time on unpaid labor and caregiving. They also wake up more frequently during the night than men, which leads to a greater need for additional sleep, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Meanwhile, a team from Loughborough University in the UK studied the sleep patterns of 210 middle-aged men and women and discovered that women need at least 20 minutes more sleep than men. The scientists noted that women require extra sleep because their brains work harder due to multitasking.

Professor Jim Horn, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University, stated, “The more your brain works during the day, the more time it needs to recover.”

According to Professor Horn, “the female brain is structured more complexly than the male brain,” which is why women, on average, need 20 minutes more sleep than men. However, this discrepancy can vary among different women, being either slightly greater or slightly less.

Like Dr. Patrick Flynn, many scientists believe that hormonal factors primarily influence the difference in sleep duration. For example, Australian doctor Carmel Harrington noted that women require more sleep due to increased levels of the sex hormone progesterone. This occurs during the last two weeks of the female menstrual cycle. She suggests that during this period, women should aim to sleep at least half an hour longer than usual.