If you’ve ever felt guilty for needing a bit more sleep than the men in your life, don’t. Science is on your side. From menstrual cycles to pregnancy and menopause, these hormonal shifts make it harder for women to fall asleep, stay asleep, and wake up feeling truly rested. And it’s not because they’re lazy or less productive, it’s because women’s bodies go through hormonal rollercoasters that impact how deeply and how well they sleep.
In a viral post, Dr Manan Vora, an orthopaedic doctor and award-winning health influencer, sheds light on a biological truth many people overlook: women genuinely need more sleep than men. On average, he says, they require about 20 minutes more every day. Dr Vora puts it plainly: “Even eight hours of sleep doesn’t feel enough sometimes because the body doesn’t fully rest. It’s not being lazy. It’s just how the body works.”
The Reasons Why Women Need More Sleep
Dr Vora explained, “Women should not feel bad about needing more rest than they get, as it is not a luxury but a physiological need.”
1. The Hormonal Connection: How Sleep Affects Women Differently
The brain controls sleep, but there is a heavy hormonal influence on it. There are two major hormones in a woman, estrogen and progesterone, which constantly vary during the whole life and influence everything, including her moods, energy levels, body temperature and sleep.
A drop in their hormones causes a disturbance of the sleep cycle, causing disturbances in falling asleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. Moreover, this dip in hormones can also make women feel exhausted even after getting a full night of rest, as they may consume less time in healing periods of sleep.
Men, on the other hand, maintain relatively constant hormone patterns and can sleep more regularly, without disturbing patterns.
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2. Periods: The Monthly Sleep Disruptor
The menstrual cycle can cause changes in the quality of sleep per month and, in particular, the week before a period. This is whereby progesterone plummets and results in:
- Problems with deep sleep.
- Anxiety or anger.
- Twitches and pain interfering with sleep
3. Pregnancy: The Match Between Fatigue and Insomnia
The period of pregnancy is one of the most difficult times to sleep well, ironically, since this is a time that a woman's body requires rest most of all. Excess progesterone may result in a feeling of sleepiness during the day and cause:
- Nausea
- Frequent urination
- Leg cramps and back pain
- Nervousness or nightmares
- Bloating or stomach pain due to stretching.
During the third trimester, it may be very hard to adopt a comfortable sleep position. The outcome is a lack of sleep and constant tiredness.
4. Menopause: Monthly Sleep Disruptor
When women get closer to menopause, the levels of estrogen decrease drastically, which initiates hot flashes, night sweats and mood swings, which disturb their sound sleep.
Research indicates that women undergoing perimenopause and menopause are much more prone to experiencing sleeplessness, distorted sleeping patterns and inability to wake up in the morning. And since their sleep quality deteriorates, their physical fitness and mental recuperating abilities also get hampered.
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5. Mental Load Factor
Besides the biology, there is the mental load that goes unseen. Most women are economising all kinds of responsibilities- at home, in workplaces, as care-givers, which adds to mental exhaustion. This continuous multitasking and emotional work may lead to overstimulation, anxiety and racing thoughts before bedtime, all of which postpone the sleep onset or depth of sleep.
Therefore, women sleeping more is not laziness; rather, it is a case of the brain and body struggling to recover after being overwhelmed.
6. The Sleep Debt Trap
Unfortunately, women tend to ignore fatigue, and in the process, they tend to have a feeling that the needs of every other person are more important than their own needs. In the long term, this results in a sleeping deficit, which predisposes one to:
- Weakened immunity
- Switch of anti-social mood or depression
- Weight gain
- Heart disease
- Memory problems and lack of concentration
Dr Vora and other research studies claim that it is important to consider and recognise the special sleep requirements of women as a long-term healthy behaviour.
7. What Can Be Done?
The following are some of the measures women can take to aid sleep:
- Sleep and wake up at a consistent time every day.
- Do not take caffeine in the evening.
- Make a sleep environment, cool, dark and quiet.
- Add some light exercise/ yoga to deal with stress.
- Adding magnesium-based foods or supplements to naturally boost recovery.
- Track hormonal patterns to ready yourself for bad sleep nights (e.g. luteal phase)
Above all, women have to cease feeling guilty about the fact that they require more rest. The 20 additional minutes they spend is not a luxury but the energy to perform all other activities.
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Final Thoughts: Women Should Sleep More
The reel posted by Dr Manan Vora is a very necessary reminder that women require more sleep, simply because they are carrying out more behind the scenes. Be it monthly through menstruation or carrying a baby, going through menopause or any such other reasons, it seems like their sleep suffers at every corner.
Therefore, normalising rest instead of downplaying tiredness should now be a priority. Now, women should be supported to take a bit longer sleep, or take a nap during the day and not feel guilty.