Sleeping Beauty: Why Sleep Is More Important For Women

Per Wikipedia: Sleep is a naturally recurring state of mind characterized by altered consciousness, relatively inhibited sensory activity, inhibition of nearly all voluntary muscles, and reduced interactions with surroundings. It is distinguished from wakefulness by a decreased ability to react to stimuli but is more easily reversed than the state of hibernation or of being comatose.

Where would we be without sleep? Have you ever thought about why your body has to rest? There are many stages of sleep and each stage has a different purpose, time length and characteristics. Good sleep plays an essential role in the state of your mental health, quality of life and physical health. It has been noted that women need more sleep than men. Women who experience problems with sleep have more health issues than men who experience problems with sleep. Scientists are not completely sure why sleep deprivation affects women more, but, they believe the reasoning has to do with our hormones. Sleep is more important for women because it affects our health more, we tend to get less sleep than males, and sleep deprivation can lead to a shorter lifespan.

Common Sleep Disorders:

• Insomnia-Persistent problems falling and staying asleep.
• Restless Legs Syndrome-A nearly irresistible urge to move the legs, typically in the evenings.
• Shift Work Disorder- Insomnia and excessive sleepiness affecting people whose work hours overlap with the typical sleep period.
• Apnea-Sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts.
• Narcolepsy-Causes overwhelming daytime drowsiness.

How Lack Of Sleep Can Affect A Woman's Health.

Mentally- Lack of sleep can negatively impact the mental state of women. Lack of sleep can cause memory loss and impair thinking. Sleep loss is correlated wth anger and hostility as well. Depression is associated with women that experienced interrupted sleep. The brain repairs itself during sleep, so the lack of is thought to contribute to psychological issues and mental illness.

Physically- Cells are regenerated, organs clear out toxins and other processes to restart our bodies happen during sleep. Lack of sleep for women tend to show higher rates of heart disease, hypertension, blood clots and stroke. No getting enough sleep can cause weight gain and diabetes too.

We are smarter than men. No, seriously, scientists states sleep is more important for women because we use our brain more. In life, women tend to multitask throughout it more than men do. The more you use your brain, the more it needs to rest and regenerate itself. Ladies how many of us can relate to driving while putting on mascara? I am so guilty of doing so. Or how many of us can recall breastfeeding your little one while trying to balance your own plate of food on your other knee? Our brains are wired differently and are more complex than men. These differences, our hormones, and our tendency to multitask more than men causes us to need more sleep. A benefit of us getting more sleep than men is when comparing our brains to men, even though our brains may be the same age, a woman's brain tends to be just as youthful or is comparable to a younger male's brain. It is believed our extra hours of beauty sleep over a lifetime gives women a brain that ages slower than men.

Sleep Is More Important For Women because our sleep is interrupted more than men's sleep. For women, our reproductive cycle poses hormonal changes that can make it harder for us to fall asleep or stay asleep. Pregnancy, menstruation, menopause, and ovulation can cause temperature change, weight change and discomfort that makes sleep harder to obtain. We also have to juggle life and work with babies, cooking, homework, shopping and so much more. Trying to balance work, family and a social life can hinder sleep. Studies also show in the bedroom the smaller occupant of the bed is usually disturbed more during sleep than the larger person. Men are usually larger than women, so we are more likely to be disturbed from movement or snoring.

Did you know that your lack of sleep may be cutting years off of your life? Sleep is an important time for the body. The body repairs itself and removes toxins during sleep. If the body does not have adequate time to repair itself, it becomes more susceptible to virus and disease. Studies have shown that less sleep correlates with an increased amount of inflammation as well. Inflammation in the body anywhere is not good. Harvard experts reveal that people that get less than five hours of sleep have a 15% increased chance to die from anything at any age.

Did you sleep well last night? Well, now that you have an idea of why sleep is more important for women, what will you personally do to ensure you have a better and more fulfilling night of sleep tonight?