The phrase "beauty sleep" will never resonate more with women than during these times, when emerging studies show that women do need an ample amount of sleep to keep them at their prime. In fact, these studies also reveal that women need more sleep than men.
Women are more prone to heart attacks and strokes when they do not have enough restful sleep, compared to men. Not only that, but research has shown that women tend to display more emotional responses after receiving little amount of sleep compared to men. According Dr. Edward Suarez of Duke University, associations between the number of hours of sleep, and emotions, were stronger in women than in men. Moodiness, anger, and hostility were observed more in women after shorter hours of sleep.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease control and Prevention said that an estimate number of 8.6 million Americans prescribe to sleep aids, as analyzed from a set of data extracted in 2013. Among these sleep aid prescribers, majority are women and people older than 50 years old.
In line with this, it is confirmed that the primary patients of sleep clinics are women. Factors that may have contributed to this phenomenon include sleep deprivation brought about by motherhood, insomnia caused by menopause, a generally greater risk for sleep apnea, among other issues.
The National Sleep Foundation confirmed that women with children displayed more tendencies to develop sleep issues than women with no children.
These sleep issues may cause debilitating effects to women's health. Thankfully, sleep experts are finding ways to solve this problem. Leslie Swanson, a psychologist at the University of Michigan Behavioral Sleep Clinic, advocates helping new mothers develop skills and learn tools in dealing with mothering newborn babies. This promotes sufficient sleep in new mothers without prescribing to over-the-counter medicine.
Swanson advises women to challenge their thinking and behavior towards sleep, a crucial ingredient for their optimum health.
