Challenges

When it comes to getting a good night’s sleep, there’s a gender gap. Women are more likely than men to have insomnia, which can mean trouble falling asleep or staying asleep, leaving them more tired during the day.
The difference is significant, according to a review of 13 studies involving 326,908 people published in 2020 in Frontiers in Psychiatry. Women were nearly 60 percent more likely to have insomnia than men. Earlier research, using different methods, found a still-striking 40 percent difference.
While it’s possible that men are less likely to report their sleep problems, there are plenty of reasons women may indeed suffer from poorer sleep, says Phyllis Zee, M.D., director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University, Chicago.
“I don’t think we know definitively why … but it could be related to menstrual cycles, pregnancies, and hormonal and other changes in physiology around menopause,” she says. And women frequently fill more roles than men: “They are caregivers at almost every stage of their lives,” assisting children, aging parents, spouses and partners, she adds.
Many women are aware of the immediate price they pay for nights of lost sleep, from grogginess to irritability.
But years of poor sleep can have lasting consequences on brain health. Sleep deprivation impairs attention, memory and executive function, and increases cognitive complaints in middle-aged adults, according to AARP’s Global Council on Brain Health. Sleeping well through one’s lifespan is likely to promote better cognitive functioning with age, the GCBH said in its 2016 report.
Studies that focus on the fragmented sleep that comes with insomnia show that it’s linked with faster cognitive decline. It’s also a risk factor for stroke and depression, the GCBH said.
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