2024-04-11 18:11:12
It was found that women sleep worse than men. Scientists speculate that this is because women’s internal clocks run six minutes faster. This means they are out of sync with their environment. It also disrupts the internal circuitry that tells the brain when to feel sleepy.
Researchers from Harvard and Stanford universities in the US and the University of Southampton in the UK reviewed dozens of academic papers published over the past decade on the poorly understood ‘sleep gap’ that exists between men and women.
Their study, recently published in the journal Sleep Medicine Reviews, found that women were about 60 percent more likely to experience insomnia than men. Women rate their sleep quality low and complain of not sleeping well through the night.
On the other hand, men sleep more deeply than women and are more likely to be night owls, going to bed late and waking up late. There is also a greater risk of experiencing sleep apnea.
More in-depth experiments have shown that there are gender differences in the speed of the body’s built-in clock, the ‘circadian rhythm’ that sets the rhythm of our lives.
When sleep comes, your body responds to environmental signals, dropping your core body temperature within a few hours and closing your eyes to prepare your body for sleep. Internally, the body secretes more melatonin, the hormone that puts us to sleep.
A new analysis shows that melatonin is secreted earlier in women than in men. Core body temperature appears to follow the same pattern, peaking earlier in women.
“This (six minutes) difference may be small, but it is very significant,” said study author Dr. Renske Locke, a Stanford University psychiatry expert, according to the Daily Mail. “Women are about five times larger,” he pointed out.
“Imagine someone’s clock constantly running six minutes faster or slower,” he said. “As days, weeks and months go by, this difference causes a noticeable discrepancy between the internal clock and external signals such as light and darkness. “This may occur,” he said.
Dr Locke added: “Disruptions in circadian rhythms have been linked to sleep disorders, mood disorders and cognitive decline, and even subtle differences in circadian rhythms can have a significant impact on overall health and wellbeing.”
“Poor sleep quality has been linked to anxiety and depressive disorders, which are twice as common in women than men,” said co-author Dr Sarah Celappa, a neuroscientist at the University of Southampton. “Women are less likely to be diagnosed with insomnia than men. “It’s twice as likely, but it’s not clear why.”
One study found that women were up to four times more likely to suffer from a sleep-related eating disorder, which involves eating repeatedly at night. Another study found that the risk of developing restless legs syndrome was 25 to 50 percent higher.
Women generally sleep longer than men, and their non-REM sleep time tends to be about 8 minutes longer.
Sleep works in parallel with REM sleep, the time for dreaming, and NREM sleep, the time not for dreaming. During REM sleep, the brain’s exhausted functions are restored, and during NREM sleep, the body’s muscles are restored. About 80% of adult sleep is non-REM sleep, of which 20% is deep sleep.
In the deepest stage of deep sleep, brain waves become much slower and growth hormones are secreted at this time. The body uses it to repair and regenerate tissue, build bones and muscles, and strengthen the immune system.
The time spent in non-REM sleep decreases with age, but the researchers noted that this decline was more pronounced in older men.
They also added that men tend to overeat more than women due to lack of sleep.
Park Hae-sik, Donga.com reporter [email protected]
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2024-04-11 18:11:12