Women need more sleep than men because of their 'complex' brains according to new research.
Scientists found that on average women needed twenty minutes more sleep than men because their brains work harder during the day. The study was carried out on a sample set of 210 middle-aged men and women.
"One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself." study author Jim Horne told the Mail Online. Prof Horan said the amount of sleep was necessitated by the complexity and intensity of brain activity during the day.
"The more of your brain you use during the day, the more of it that needs to recover and, consequently, the more sleep you need. Women tend to multi-task - they do lots at once and are flexible - and so they use more of their actual brain than men do. Because of that, their sleep need is greater."
"The average need is 20 minutes more, but some women may need slightly more or less than this." he added.
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He also said that men that have who have complex jobs that require a large amount of “decision-making and lateral thinking” are also likely to need more sleep than the average male.
The study also found that poor sleep among women was linked to a number of side effects including increased levels of psychological distress and greater feelings of hostility, depression, and anger. These side effects were all found in women who sleep poorly but not men.
Do you think you get enough sleep? Does this study sound about right to you?
