Women’s Brains Work Harder, So They Need More Sleep, Study Reveals

Next time your wife, girlfriend or daughter says, "Five more minutes," let her have it. Scientists who have studied both male and female brains have found that female brains do more work than male brains do, and therefore require more sleep at the end of a long day. We're not saying that women are smarter per se, but as far as neuroscience is concerned, a woman's brain is put to more use than a man's brain is. This may sound sexist, but it's true! So let the woman in your life sleep in more often, and if you are a woman, don't feel so guilty about needing more Z's. You've earned it!

Women's brains are more complex. According to Jim Horne, a sleep expert and former director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University who authored this particular study, women need more sleep than men do because women's brains are more complex. Because their brains are working overtime and in more intricate ways, they need more time to recover from all of the thinking they do day in and day out.

The study. For the study, 210 middle-aged men and women were recruited in order to analyze their brain and sleep patterns, behavior, and overall function. What they found was that the differences between the male and female brain make for different sleep needs.

Women do more multitasking. For one thing, women ultimately do more multitasking on a daily basis than men do. Their attention and energy is given to many issues at once and their brains are wired to accomplish tasks this way, whereas men's brains aren't. This means that at any given time, a woman is doing more work with her brain than a man.

Women use more brainpower. Not only do women multitask more than men do, but they use more brainpower overall. Women use more of their brains and that requires more energy to fuel the fire. Basically, you need to get more sleep in to get more work out.

That means they need more time to recover. When you use more of your brain, your brain needs more time to recover from all the work it's been doing. The sleep amount that works for a man won't be enough for a woman because their brains function at different levels. A woman needs more time to recharge.

Their sleep need is greater. A lot of people see the need for extra sleep as a kind of weakness. Next time a guy asks why you're so exhausted all the time ladies, just tell them that your brain is tired from doing so much more work – it's scientifically proven. They'll quiet down really fast.

8 hours isn't right for everyone. All our lives, we're all told that eight hours is the standard amount of sleep that everyone needs to be well-rested and ready to go for the next day. However, that "fact" that you've depended on for so long simply isn't true. Everyone's sleep number is different. Some people can do just fine on only five hours a night, while other people need more.

How much more sleep do women need? Before you get too excited about all this extra sleep though, you need to hear the other results of the study. While you may want to use this news as an excuse to get a few extra hours worth of sleep, scientists have found that on average, women only need about 20 minutes more sleep than men do.

What happens during deep sleep. So what actually happens during sleep that recharges our proverbial batteries? According to the study author, it's all about the cortex. During a deep sleep, this is the part of the brain – responsible for thought, memory, and language – that goes into recovery mode.

How sleep disruption affects women. Women are actually scientifically proven to be more cranky about lost sleep than men. Researchers found that sleep disruption in women resulted in greater feelings of hostility, depression, and anger, but these feelings were unobserved in men who got poor sleep. Lesson: Don't wake your girlfriend before she's ready.

Psychological distress. It's not like men are emotionless robots, but women are generally more emotional beings. This extra effort on behalf of the brain also takes away from her daily energy store. Not only is she thinking more and using more of her brain for multitasking, but she's handling more emotions.

Lack of sleep doesn't affect men the same way. As far as the study is concerned, men didn't seem to suffer from poor, interrupted, or lost sleep like women did. Emotionally, men seem to do just fine the next day if they've missed out on proper sleep. There's one benefit of not using as much of your brain.

As always, it depends on the individual. Just because you're a woman doesn't mean you are definitely going to need an extra 20 minutes on the dot every night. There are women who function just fine on fewer than 8 hours per night. It varies with men, too. Studies like this speak to the general population and come to large scale conclusions.

It also depends on what you do for a living. The scientists responsible for the study also noted that just like it depends on the individual, sleep needs also depend on what exactly your day consists of. Men who have more complex jobs which involve a lot of decision-making and lateral thinking will likely need more sleep than the average guy.

Go back to bed. Next time you feel a little more sleepy than normal in the morning, tell yourself to go back to bed for the sake of science. Don't feel bad about it! You're just giving your brain what it wants. Besides, you'll get plenty done when you wake up.