How sleep deprivation can make women more hostile than men
12-06-2014
The saying “must have got out of the wrong side of the bed” is actually more accurate than we thought. Admittedly it has nothing to do with what side of the bed you got out of but the saying has a kernel of truth to it that must be the reason it was coined and has stayed in use. We all know that having a bad night’s sleep can leave us more angry and hostile than normal and now science has backed this up. Sleep deprivation makes you more hostile, and interestingly enough it makes women more hostile than men.
It has been shown that people who are sleep deprived are more irritable, angry and hostile than those who have slept well the night before. This seems fairly obvious to most of us. You only need to have a few hours less sleep than normal and you will feel far less charitable to the wider world around you. However, what is more interesting is the new study that has found that not only is this most definitely true but that it impacts women more than men.
Yes, someone was brave enough to decide to study gender differences in mood due to sleep and to publish results that women were more grumpy if they had a bad night’s sleep than men. Even braver, the lead researcher was a man!
A team of researchers from Duke University have found that that women suffer more than men, both mentally and physically, when they are deprived of sleep. Sleep-deprived females have a far greater risk of depression and are more likely to be grumpy during the day. The new study finds that females are prone to waking up grumpier than men in the morning, you can’t argue with science, ladies!
Edward Suarez, PhD, the brave study lead and associate professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke commented that "The differences are so remarkable. Most studies have said that poor sleep is bad for overall health, but few studies have looked at these gender differences."
The scientists who conducted the study believe that the reason for this is that women need more sleep then men and that this means it that they are more likely to suffer the consequences of an insufficient night’s sleep than men. Why do women need more sleep then? They think that it has something to do with the different hormones that men and women have and that for some reason the hormones in a women’s system demand that they require more sleep. This is an area that needs more work but certainly looks like it will provide more ammunition in the war of the sexes!
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