Do women need more sleep?

Do women need more hours of sleep than men? This is a question – quite common – that the National Sleep Foundation of the United States tried to answer, an organization that studies people’s sleep based on the principle that it is a pillar of health and that information on its quality promote general well-being. AND although the results of the study They were not so conclusive, some patterns could be established, as well as revealing a historical problem in modern science.

The first thing that needs to be clarified, says the surgeon, specialist in sleep medicine and clinical hypnosis, Carmen Chacon , is that the need for sleep is very individual and can vary considerably even within the same sex. And although she recognizes that there is a clear trend among women towards a greater need for rest, the professional says that the hours required depend on each person and their lifestyle. “General recommendations for adults suggest between 7 and 9 hours of sleep per night, but it is crucial to listen to your body and adapt as necessary, to feel rested and function optimally during the day”, adds the specialist.

However, if we focus on gender differences, women generally sleep about 11 minutes more than men and tend to fall asleep more quickly, showing a greater need for sleep. In fact, the Sleep Foundation study recognized that Physiological differences such as hormone production and others related to the historical role of caregivers influence women’s greater need for rest.

“Female hormones can affect sleep from menarche to menopause and what about during pregnancy, where sleep disturbances become more evident with the increase in progesterone during the first trimester and with physical changes towards the last trimester . “, explain Patricia Masalan nurse-midwife, sleep therapist and academic at the Catholic University School of Nursing.

Likewise, Masalán emphasizes that the fact that women must be constantly attentive to the needs of others, given their role as caregivers, seriously affects the quality of their sleep and can have serious consequences. “Women’s daily tasks mean that in addition to working, having worries and household chores, we have to take care of children or other dependent people. We go to bed later, wake up in the middle of the night, and are often the first to get up. All this modifies the normal sleep rhythm, creating a deficit that is very difficult to recover and has consequences on physical and mental health,” adds the professional.

It is therefore not only a physiological problem, but also a social and cultural one. According to another study carried out by the same organization, the situation worsens when we talk about women with children. 55% of the female public between 25 and 44 years old with at least one child sleeps less than 7 hours, That is, less than necessary for an adult to function smoothly. Among men, only 38% suffer from it. In fact, men in this group typically sleep at least 30 minutes more than their female counterparts.

And one last fact : 12% of American women wake up in the middle of the night to take care of others doubling the number of male spectators.

According to experts, diagnoses such as anxiety and depression are considered the main concerns that keep women up at night. And even if the figures are not that different from those of men (51% women and 43% men), the prevalence of these pathologies is worrying since medicine, like many other aspects of society, tends to have a man in his studies.

We already know Aristotle’s version, which described the female body as the other side of the human body , with the genitals “inwards”; wave of Hippocrates, the founder of modern medicine, who believed that women were controlled by their uterus and that anything other than normal was classified as hysteria.

Historically, medicine has considered the male body as the norm and the female body as a deviation, applying the same treatments without taking into account physiological differences. The fact is that the scenario has not changed enough. Barely 13 years ago, an American died of multiple pulmonary embolisms due to her contraceptive ring and while not fatal in all cases, discrimination and the perpetuation of gender stereotypes can profoundly affect women’s health, even leading them to abandon treatment.

For him It is worrying that although hormonal disorders such as PMS, perimenopause and menopause affect the sleep of almost half of women, there has not been much progress in gynecology, even less so in studying the sleep of transgender women, who tend to be isolated in these areas.

Thus, the research of the National Sleep Foundation of the United States is pioneering, not only in responding to the need for sleep, a little-studied area, but also in taking into account social elements, which medicine does not usually do. It is important to recognize the condition and promote a specialized approach towards women in order to prevent the perpetuation of such harmful stereotypes that could lead to death.

“Progress in improving women’s health must be recognized, but it is also necessary to maintain momentum and continue to advocate for medicine that recognizes and responds appropriately to gender differences health matter. Education continues and research and public policy play a fundamental role in this process, ensuring that progress in women’s health is not only maintained but accelerated,” concludes Chacón.