Women Use More Brain And Therefore Need More Sleep

Do women need more sleep than men? Why is male brain aging faster than female? Who is sleepier, men or women? How much sleep do most adults need?

One of the leading experts claims that women need 20 minutes of sleep more than men in order to function normally. That is because rapid female brain can do more functions at the same time.

„One of the most important affects of sleep is recovery of the brain“ says prof. Jim Horne, director at the Research center of Loughborough University, and the author of a book Sleepfaring: A journey through the science of sleep.

Why do they need more sleep? Women often do more things at the same time and are very flexible which means they use greater brain capacity than men. That is why they have greater needs for sleep. „During the deep sleep cortex – a part of the brain responsible for memory and language among other functions – is being abstracted from our senses and goes into recovery status. The more we use our brain during the day, the more it has to rest and that means more sleep. Women often do more things at the same time and therefore need more sleep“ explained professor Horne.

„A man who has a complex job which includes making decisions and more thinking also needs more sleep than an average man – but still less than women! Women still need an extra 20 minutes more in average. Of course, some even need more“ he added.
Professor Horne believes that the above differences can also explain why a man’s brain ages faster than woman’s. „A typical 75-year-old woman’s brain is biologically old as a 70-year-old man’s. I can’t be entirely sure why is that so but maybe the sleeping needs can explain it to us a partially.An average adult needs 6 -8 hours of sleep. But the individual needs are significantly different – some can function with 6 hours sleep, but some even need 10. If you are not sleepy during the day, that means that you have slept enough“ he said.

Women need more sleep but they don’t sleep that much. One research has showed that women suffer from lack of sleep more than men. It is because women don’t sleep as hard as men and can be woken easier. Pregnant women, mothers of little children and women in menopause also have troubles sleeping. Women also tend to underestimate the amount of sleep they need.

Interesting thing is that we are more sensitive to the noises and words that have some kind of emotional meaning. For example, if someone whispers your name, it is more likely that you will wake up to that than to some insignificant word.