If you've ever spent one too many nights tossing and turning, you're not alone. According to Harvard Medical School, 60 percent of women don't sleep enough. And what's the only thing worse than staring at the clock all night? Staring at the clock while your restful partner snores next to you. Men have an easier time both falling and staying asleep for a variety of reasons.




Sleep researcher and Canadian Sleep Society president Helen Driver discussed the differences with Best Health. "Women may need a little more sleep than men do," she explained. "And we also experience more sleep problems, such as insomnia." Due to hormones to using our brains differently, women have a harder time unwinding at night. We've rounded up the main culprits for our sleep deprivation, as well as what to do about it.

Blame it on the hormones

Unlike men, women's reproductive systems go through major changes throughout adulthood, and those changes can affect sleep. Helen Driver shared that women's sleep usually changes during their menstrual cycles, pregnancy, and menopause. "Women are more prone to having poor sleep around menstruation," explained Driver. "And that's related to pain and mood changes." During your menstrual cycle, it's especially important to be kind to yourself. Make sure to go to bed and wake at the same times everyday. Eating healthy foods and moving your body will also help with sleep.

When you are pregnant, it's not just the hormones keeping you up. From needing to run to the bathroom all night to trying to get comfortable, there are plenty of reasons why you can't sleep. Studies show that during pregnancy, a woman cannot reach deep sleep as much as she used to. In menopause, women lie awake because of hot flashes and even menopause-induced insomnia. As women age, we are less likely to be able to reach that deep, restorative sleep. To sum it up, we can never get a break.

Worry less, sleep more

Another reason why women take longer to fall asleep might be emotions. Research shows that women are more emotionally sensitive, and those emotions could be keeping us up at night. Emotionally sensitive does not mean dramatic or weak. It simply means that women are better able to tune into their emotions, and that can make it hard to shut our brains off at night.

"Some [experts] suggest that women are more in tune with how they're feeling and are more sensitive to problems with their sleep," shares Driver. "A theory we have is that women tend to ruminate about things a little bit more than men do. Women worry and think about what's happened during the day, and they're not able to let things go." That means that if your partner and you both had bad days at work, he can still easily drift off to dreamland while you are still trying to figure out what you could have done differently and what tomorrow will be like.


Women use their brains more

Oh, we just love this study. Researchers at Duke University studied the differences in men and women's sleep and came to the conclusion that women require more sleep than men because they simply use their brains more.

Jim Horne, director of the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England, had similar findings. "One of the major functions of sleep is to allow the brain to recover and repair itself. During deep sleep, the cortex — the part of the brain responsible for thought, memory, language and so on — disengages from the senses and goes into recovery mode," Horne explained to The Australian. "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."

These findings support Helen Driver's research that women tend to ruminate more at night and have trouble shutting down their brains. Being the smarter sex is both a blessing and a curse.

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