Poor Sleep Affects Women More Than Men
A new study from the United States shows a poor night’s sleep may cause greater psychological distress and more elevated health risks in women than in men.
Eduard Suarez, associate professor and author from the Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina compared women and men with similar poor sleep patterns, finding that women showed dramatically higher levels of distress and of biomarkers associated with the risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.
“The study suggests that poor sleep — measured by the total amount of sleep, the degree of awakening during the night and, most importantly, how long it takes to get to sleep — may have more serious health consequences for women than for men,” said Suarez in a release.
“In women but not men, poor sleep and sleep-related symptoms are associated by a mosaic of plasma biomarkers and psychosocial distress associated with increased risk of Type 2 diabetes, CVD [cardiovascular disease] and other chronic medical conditions,” he wrote in the study, published last week in the online edition of the journal Brain, Behavior and Immunity.
Roughly 40 per cent of the participants were classified as poor sleepers, meaning they had problems falling asleep, took 30 minutes or more to fall asleep, or woke frequently during the night.
Read the rest of the article here.
Thus far, 57% of all SleepSmart sleep survey participants are female, leading to believe that more women are actively searching for a sleep aid or supplement than are men.
