If you’ve been on TikTok recently, you may have stumbled across the notion that women need more sleep than men — a lot more, according to some of the loudest voices. In a video from February, wellness podcaster Rebecca Leigh announced that “all the studies that were done on how many hours of sleep to get were only conducted on men,” leading her to conclude that “if those studies were done on women, they would have found the optimal range would have been nine to ten hours of sleep — not the seven to eight that men need.” Another TikToker posted that “us girlies should be getting nine to ten minimum” hours of sleep a night; the video has over 8,000 comments, many of them from women responding “no wonder I’m always tired.”
@rebeccaaleigh no longer thinking im crazy for thinking i need 9-10 hours a sleep 😅 we need women to be included in these studies!!! #wellness
♬ original sound - Rebecca Leigh
The idea seems to have gained traction after Patrick Flynn posted a video in January claiming that “women need dramatically more sleep than men,” putting the number somewhere “between eight to ten hours.” Flynn — a chiropractor — subsequently admitted that this observation was not based on data. There is no study that shows women need ten hours of sleep a night. According to Sara Nowakowski, an associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine, research does support the idea that women need slightly more sleep than men — though the difference is closer to 10 to 15 minutes. A 2013 survey of adults in the U.S. found that on average women reported spending 11 minutes longer in bed each day than men.
It’s also true that sleep needs vary between individuals for many reasons, including genetics and age. The CDC recommends adults get seven or more hours of sleep a night. Nowakowski says the majority of people need somewhere between seven to nine hours, regardless of their sex or gender. According to Nowakowski, ten hours of sleep a night would be on the extreme end — more likely seen among those who are sick, on medication, or dealing with sleep disorders or highly disrupted sleep.
As for why women seem to need slightly more sleep than men, it’s a complicated puzzle — and one that, like much of the medical field, would benefit from more research focused on women. Biological differences between the sexes may very well play a role, especially the hormone fluctuations that accompany menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Women are also more likely to report suffering from insomnia, depression, anxiety, and chronic pain, all of which can contribute to poor sleep quality.
Gender also impacts sleep habits. Women are still far more likely to take on caregiving responsibilities and other unpaid work. “If you’ve exhausted yourself during the day, you’re building up a greater biological need to sleep,” Nowakowski says. The same survey that found women tend to sleep slightly longer noted that the largest differences in sleep time were found among women who were partnered or lived with children, who reported spending around 30 minutes more in bed. “Getting up to take care of others, a task disproportionately performed by women, is highly disruptive to sleep and may reduce overall sleep quality,” the authors wrote. “Therefore, another way to think about gender differences in time for sleep is to ask whether they are large enough; even an extra 30 minutes of sleep for mothers might not compensate for their greater likelihood of waking to provide care.”
According to the CDC, a third of U.S. adults say they get less than the recommended seven hours of sleep a night, putting them at increased risk of numerous health issues, including diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and depression. Still, Nowakowski says individual sleep needs can be subjective. “Generally we know it’s seven to nine hours for most people, but you kind of have to figure out where you are on that range for yourself,” she says. It’s normal to feel groggy immediately after you wake up, so she recommends paying attention to how you feel once you’ve been up for 15 minutes. If you feel the need to take naps or like you’re completely burning out, it’s probably safe to say you’re not getting enough sleep, regardless of your gender.