Do Women Need More Sleep Than Men? What the Studies Say

One of you is asleep by half past ten. The other is still answering email at midnight and wakes before the alarm. Sooner or later someone asks: do women need more sleep than men? The honest answer is not much, if at all. Every official guideline gives adults the same 7 to 9 hours. Women do sleep a few minutes longer, get more deep sleep, and report worse sleep, which is the gap that matters.

That last part is where most of the useful advice sits. This piece goes through what the guidelines say, what the large studies measured, where women’s sleep needs do change, and what an executive of either sex can do with the evidence.

Do Women Need More Sleep Than Men? The Short Answer

No health body we could find sets a different number for women. The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute says adults should sleep between 7 and 9 hours a night, and its guidance makes no distinction by sex.

The CDC splits its advice by age instead. Adults aged 18 to 60 should get 7 or more hours. From 61 to 64 the range is 7 to 9 hours, and from 65 it is 7 to 8. Age moves the number. Sex does not.

The Sleep Foundation says it is less clear whether a person’s sex directly influences the amount of sleep they need. That is the fair summary of the science. The popular claim that women need a fixed extra amount, often quoted as twenty minutes, is repeated widely, and we could not trace it to a study we were able to read, so we have left it out.

So the headline answer to “do women need more sleep than men” is the same as for men. Aim for at least seven hours. Where the sexes differ is in what happens during those hours, and in how often life breaks them up.

What Sleep Studies Measure in Men and Women

Researchers measure sleep in two ways. Surveys and diaries ask people how long they slept and how they felt. Polysomnography wires a sleeper to sensors overnight and records brain waves, breathing and movement. The two methods tell slightly different stories about men and women.

Start with time. Women sleep slightly more than men at every life stage, about 11 minutes on average, according to the Sleep Foundation’s reading of research by Burgard and Ailshire, published in the American Sociological Review. Their study, summarised by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, used American Time Use Survey diaries and found that work and family responsibilities explained much of the gap. The authors called the gap relatively small and noted that men had more leisure time at every life stage.

The CDC’s own survey data shows almost no gap in who reaches the seven-hour mark. In a 2016 CDC report covering 444,306 adults, 64.6% of men and 65.2% of women said they usually slept at least seven hours. Roughly a third of both sexes fall short.

The lab recordings show a bigger difference. A 2004 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine led by Susan Redline, listed by the NHLBI-funded Cardiovascular Health Study, recorded the sleep of 2,685 people aged 37 to 92 in a community-based cohort. Men slept more lightly than women, and women had, on average, 106% more slow wave sleep, the deepest stage. Men, but not women, showed signs of poorer sleep as they aged.

A newer cohort points the same way. The EPISONO study, published in Frontiers in Sleep in 2025, ran full-night recordings on 688 adults in 2007 and again in 2015. It found no significant difference between the sexes in total sleep time. Women had a higher share of slow wave sleep in both rounds. Men had more of the lightest stage, more arousals, and a higher score on the index used to detect sleep apnea.

The paradox in the numbers

Put those results together and something does not add up. On the recordings, women often sleep as long or longer, and more deeply. In surveys, women report worse sleep.

A 2023 survey for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine asked 2,005 American adults how often they wake feeling well rested. 31% of women said rarely or never, against 17% of men. The EPISONO authors note the same pattern in the wider literature and say the reasons for the gap between subjective and objective findings remain unclear.

Insomnia sharpens it further. A meta-analysis in the journal Sleep by Zhang and Wing pooled studies covering 1,265,015 people and found women had a risk ratio of 1.41 for insomnia compared with men. Put simply, women were about 41% more likely to report it. The authors found the gap grew with age and was most marked in older adults.

The table below puts the main findings side by side.

Measure	What the study found	Source
Recommended sleep	7 to 9 hours for all adults, no split by sex	NHLBI
Usually sleep 7+ hours	Men 64.6%, women 65.2%	CDC, 2016
Average time asleep	Women about 11 minutes longer	Sleep Foundation, citing Burgard and Ailshire
Deep (slow wave) sleep	Women 106% more on average	Redline and colleagues, 2004
Insomnia	Women’s risk ratio 1.41 versus men	Zhang and Wing, 2006
Rarely or never wake rested	Women 31%, men 17%	AASM survey, 2023

The amount of sleep differs very little between the sexes. The experience of sleep differs a lot.

Why Women Report Worse Sleep

The research offers several reasons, and none of them requires women to need more hours.

Hormones come first. The Sleep Foundation lists menstruation, pregnancy, breastfeeding and menopause as stages when hormone shifts can cause or worsen sleep problems, and says women at those stages are more likely to develop insomnia, restless legs syndrome and obstructive sleep apnea. It also says women are twice as likely as men to develop restless legs syndrome.

Then there are interruptions. Ten minutes more in bed does little if the night is broken three times. The Sleep Foundation says additional minutes in bed might not be enough to compensate for nighttime interruptions. Sleep interrupted by caregiving is one of the mechanisms Burgard and Ailshire tested.

Mood and pain matter too. The same Sleep Foundation page says women are about twice as likely as men to experience depression and more likely to have chronic pain. Both disturb sleep, and both are reasons to see a doctor rather than to buy a better pillow.

Timing is the last factor. Women generally feel the urge to sleep earlier, the Sleep Foundation reports, while men are more likely to be night owls. A culture of late client dinners and early flights cuts into the sleep of the person whose body clock runs earlier. Our guide to caffeine and anxiety covers the other half of that trade, the extra cup that keeps a tired person going and then keeps them awake.

When Women Do Need More Sleep

There are periods when the answer to “do women need more sleep than men” changes, at least for a while.

The first is early parenthood. A study of 2,541 women and 2,118 men in a German household panel, published in Sleep in 2019, measured sleep before and after the birth of a child. In the first months after birth, mothers slept 62 minutes less than before pregnancy. Fathers lost 13 minutes. In both sexes, sleep satisfaction and duration had not fully recovered up to six years after the first child. A new mother is carrying a real sleep debt, and it takes years to clear.

The second is the years around menopause. The Sleep Foundation’s guide to menopause and sleep says that as many as 46% of people have sleep difficulties in the years leading up to menopause, and that the risk of insomnia rises during and after the transition. The same guide says symptoms usually begin about four to seven years or more before a person’s last period, so this is a long stretch rather than a few bad months.

The third is sleep apnea that nobody has diagnosed. The Sleep Foundation says obstructive sleep apnea is more common in men, but women are underrepresented in studies and underdiagnosed. Men tend to show it as snoring. Women are more likely to report daytime fatigue, headaches and mood effects, symptoms that are easy to blame on a hard quarter. Anyone who sleeps seven hours and still wakes exhausted should raise apnea with a doctor, whatever their sex.

In each case the extra need comes from a cause that can be named, and a named cause can be treated, planned around or shared at home. A vague belief that women simply need more sleep cannot.

What Executives Should Do With the Evidence

Our newsroom’s position on whether women need more sleep than men is simple. Treat seven hours as the floor for everyone, then judge sleep by how you wake rather than by the clock. Both sexes can act on that, and so can anyone who runs a team.

Measure two weeks, honestly. Write down when you went to bed, roughly when you fell asleep, how many times you woke and how you felt at 10am. Our piece on concrete thinking explains why a specific record beats a general impression, and sleep is a good place to apply it.

Fix the interruptions before adding hours. If the night is broken by a child, a partner’s snoring or night sweats, an extra half hour in bed will not repair it. Split night duties with a partner where you can. Our guide on how to get more deep sleep covers the habits that protect the deepest stage once the interruptions are dealt with.

Respect body clocks in the diary. If you are the earlier sleeper in a late-running culture, move the decisions that matter to the morning. If you are the night owl, stop booking 7am calls you will regret. Our breakdown of Andrew Huberman’s morning routine is a practical place to start on the first hour of the day, for either sex.

Take poor sleep to a doctor. Insomnia that lasts, apnea symptoms, and sleep problems around pregnancy or menopause are medical questions. The evidence above tells you they are common. It does not tell you what to do about your own case, and neither do we.

Run the team with the same rule. A manager who praises the 5am email and the midnight reply is setting the sleep policy for everyone. Our piece on stress tolerance is a useful companion here, and our list of countries with best work life balance compares how differently countries treat working hours.

Sleep, Money and the Late Nights That Cause It

A lot of lost sleep starts with a decision left open. Retirement choices are a classic example, and our guides to 403b vs 401k and the roth ira 5 year rule close two of the common ones. Founders lose sleep over structure too, which our comparison of llc vs s corp addresses.

Careers are the other source. A promotion, a move or a new skill to learn can keep anyone awake. Setting short term career goals turns that worry into a dated list, and our explainer on what is upskilling helps decide which skill to learn first. People in heavy-travel jobs, such as the ones described in our guide to the big 4 consulting firms, face the hotel-room version of the problem, often after a client dinner where the invitation said smart casual. Our guide to the smart casual dress code men can follow takes that worry off the list.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much sleep does a woman need?

The same as a man, according to current guidance. The NHLBI recommends 7 to 9 hours for adults and the CDC recommends 7 or more for adults aged 18 to 60. Needs can rise for a period after childbirth, during the menopause transition, or with an untreated sleep disorder.

Do women get more deep sleep than men?

On average, yes. Redline’s 2004 study of 2,685 adults found women had 106% more slow wave sleep than men, and the 2025 EPISONO study also found women had a higher share of it. Women still report worse sleep, which researchers have not fully explained.

Why do women wake up tired more often than men?

The likely reasons are higher rates of insomnia, broken nights from caregiving, hormone changes, and conditions such as restless legs and underdiagnosed sleep apnea. In the AASM’s 2023 survey, 31% of women said they rarely or never wake well rested, against 17% of men.

Ask “do women need more sleep than men” and the number on the clock comes back the same for both sexes. What differs is how often the night gets broken, and that is the part worth fixing first.