Women requires more sleep than men because of
their "complex" brains, according to research.
Scientists found that around 20 minutes more
sleep was required by women compared to men and said this was thought to be
because the female brain works tougher during the day.
The study was carried out on a sample set of 210
middle-aged men and women.
"One of the major functions of sleep is to
allow the brain to recover and repair itself," study author Jim Horne, a
sleep expert previously director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University,
told.
"During deep sleep, the part of the brain
responsible for thought memory, language and so on, unfastens from the senses
and goes into recovery mode." Prof
Horn said the amount of sleep was necessitated by the complexity and intensity
of brain activity during the day.
He said: "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.
Because of that, their sleep need is greater.
"The average is 20 minutes more, but some
women may need slightly more or less than this."
However, he said men who have complex jobs which
involve a lot of "decision-making and lateral thinking" are also
likely to need more sleep than the average male.
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