Do women need more sleep because their brains work harder?

Honestly? In the morning, my husband is already showering while whistling, while I am crying trying to hold on to some sleep. I hate getting up, I love sleeping in.

And I can't do anything about it, because women need more sleep than men. At least, that's what I read on dozens of different news sites. According to researchers, twenty minutes is about the difference between men and women: women need that extra twenty minutes every night. The reason? Their brains are said to work harder during the day because women naturally multitask more.

No, sorry
Now I get it, it's a funny fact that came back in the news. But is it clearly proven in scientific research? No. Not entirely. Women may sleep more because they get tired faster? Because they do more (for the children) during the day, making them simply more tired than their partner? I mean: there are a thousand reasons to mention why a woman goes to bed earlier than a man. But scientific research does not specifically say that the female brain works harder: it does work differently. But men can - of course - work just as hard as women.

Leave me alone
But: no worries. There are other discovered differences between men and women when it comes to sleeping and the number of hours we spend in bed (no, not for that). Brain scans show that women have more deep sleep on average in a night, which means that women generally have a higher sleep quality. They also dream more and more intensely and remember those dreams more often. Additionally, observations of sleep behavior show that women lie in bed just a little longer on average over a whole year and that women also sleep more of the hours they spend in bed. Men tend to scroll a bit longer on their phones, so to speak.

Well, this is your wake-up call. Grab that cup of coffee and drag your partner back into bed. And not just to sleep. You'll see that you don't need those extra twenty minutes for a bit more energy.

Source: Pnas