University of Southampton. “Research uncovers differences between men and women in sleep, circadian rhythms and metabolism.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 April 2024.
A new review of research evidence has explored the key differences in how women and men sleep, variations in their body clocks, and how this affects their metabolism.
Published in Sleep Medicine Reviews, the paper highlights the crucial role sex plays in understanding these factors and suggests a person’s biological sex should be considered when treating sleep, circadian rhythm and metabolic disorders.
Differences in sleep
The review found women rate their sleep quality lower than men’s and report more fluctuations in their quality of sleep, corresponding to changes throughout the menstrual cycle.
“Lower sleep quality is associated with anxiety and depressive disorders, which are twice as common in women as in men,” says Dr Sarah L. Chellappa from the University of Southampton and senior author of the paper. “Women are also more likely than men to be diagnosed with insomnia, although the reasons are not entirely clear. Recognising and comprehending sex differences in sleep and circadian rhythms is essential for tailoring approaches and treatment strategies for sleep disorders and associated mental health conditions.”
The paper’s authors also found women have a 25 to 50 per cent higher likelihood of developing restless legs syndrome and are up to four times as likely to develop sleep-related eating disorder, where people eat repeatedly during the night.
Meanwhile, men are three times more likely to be diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). OSA manifests differently in women and men, which might explain this disparity. OSA is associated with a heightened risk of heart failure in women, but not men.
Sleep lab studies found women sleep more than men, spending around 8 minutes longer in non-REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, where brain activity slows down. While the time we spend in NREM declines with age, this decline is more substantial in older men. Women also entered REM sleep, characterised by high levels of brain activity and vivid dreaming, earlier than men.