For a woman, it seems that the stresses and strains of the day do not end upon going to bed.
For a study has revealed that while they spend longer in bed than men – they get less sleep.
And the researchers suggest that the problems of juggling work and family life may by why they are left tossing and turning at night.
Their study of almost 8,500 Britons revealed that the average person gets up 8 hours and 41 minutes after they turn in. However, nearly two hours of that is not spent in the land of nod – just 6 hours and 53 minutes is actually spent asleep.
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Women spend longer, on average, in bed than men do but they spend less time asleep, new research shows
The average woman spends 8 hours 47 minutes in bed – 15 minutes more than the typical male.
But researcher Yue Leng of Cambridge University said the women who took part in the study reported more broken sleep than the men.
Their average sleeping is 6 hours and 48 minutes – 11 minutes less than for the man of the house.
Miss Leng, a PhD student, said the stresses and strains of managing the work/life balance may leave women unable to sleep peacefully.
She said it is also possible that if they are more stressed than the men, they simply underestimate how long they sleep.
Their extra 15 minutes in bed also isn’t necessarily spent trying to sleep. For instance, it may be that women are more likely to curl up in bed with a good book.
The study, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, also showed that single and married people sleep better than those who are widowed, separated or divorced.
‘It may be that they experience more worries that lead to sleepless nights,’ said Miss Leng. ‘Also, sleeping alone in a double bed might exaggerate the feeling of loss and lead to disturbed sleep.’
The average bedtime reported was 10.41pm on weekdays and 10.53pm at the weekend. During the week, alarm clocks go off at 7.17am – around half an hour earlier than on Saturdays and Sundays.
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It could be women's busy lifestyles that are leaving them tossing and turning at night
Surprisingly, the analysis, which used data collected for a long-running cancer project, did not find a link between drinking coffee and poor sleep.
The importance of the study, which was part-funded by Cancer Research UK, was how it differentiated between time in bed and time spent asleep. Making this distinction is likely to be important when trying to make links between sleep and health.
Dr Neil Stanley, an independent sleep expert, said women may be more willing than men to sacrifice sleep for their other half.
‘There’s the idea that the man is the breadwinner, he’s the one who fought woolly mammoths and all that sort of thing, and therefore his sleep needs to be preserved and a woman will forgo sleep for him. A woman will let a man snore away noisily, whereas a man will instantly wake a woman if she dares to make any noise during the night.’
He added that the monthly cycle of a woman’s hormones, as well as pregnancy and menopause, can disturb sleep.
Men also find it easier to switch off at the end of the day.
‘Women are more prone to worry about all kinds of things – from whether they’ve got the kids’ clothes ready, to “will he still love me tomorrow”,’ said Dr Stanley.
With a lack of sleep linked to health issues ranging from heart disease, cancer and diabetes to memory loss, learning more about what makes a good night’s sleep could have major consequences for our health.
Previous research has shown that people who get less than six hours of sleep each night are more at risk of dying prematurely.
Dr Sarah Hazell of Cancer Research UK said finding the links between lifestyle and disease will allow people to make changes to their lives that cut their odds of cancer.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2554098/Women-sleep-men-spend-MORE-time-bed.html#ixzz2sxd2yenc
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