Do women need more sleep than men?

For decades, sleep advice has followed a simple rule: most adults need around 7-8 hours per night. But this one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always reflect biological reality. One night’s sleep has many stages, and the length and intensity of these stages impact how you feel and function both day-to-day and long-term.

Women, on average, need more sleep than men. The difference is rooted in hormones, brain function, circadian rhythms, and lifestyle.¹ Understanding why women need more sleep than men can help explain common sleep problems, particularly during hormonal transitions like perimenopause and menopause, and why sleep is so closely tied to our long-term health.

The amount of sleep we need isn’t universal - it’s biological

Sleep is a recovery process. During the night, the brain consolidates memories, repairs neural connections, regulates metabolism, and restores hormonal balance.² How much sleep someone needs depends on how much recovery their body and brain require, which varies between men and women.

Research suggests women use more areas of the brain simultaneously throughout the day, particularly regions involved in multitasking, emotional processing, and verbal memory.³ A higher level of neural activity increases the amount that the brain needs to recover overnight.⁴

Sleep is when this recovery happens. When we don’t get enough good-quality sleep, giving our brains adequate time to recover and reset, the effects of deep sleep deprivation can appear more quickly and feel more pronounced. Common symptoms include poorer concentration, lower mood, fatigue, and increased sensitivity to stress.⁵

Hormones: the biggest influence on women’s sleep

Hormones dictate the ebb and flow of all bodily functions - from our metabolism, to our sex drive, to our sleep cycle.¹ It’s perhaps no surprise, then, that as women experience more frequent and more dramatic hormonal fluctuations across their lifespan, their sleep patterns often follow suit.

Oestrogen and progesterone

Oestrogen plays a vital role in sleep regulation. Low oestrogen levels can cause your internal body temperature to rise, often causing difficulty falling asleep, nighttime waking, and/or early rising.⁶ It also regulates serotonin, which plays a key role in your sleep cycle. Serotonin helps to maintain alertness during the day, and is converted into the sleep hormone melatonin before you sleep, making it a crucial hormone in the sleep-wake cycle.⁷ 

Pregnant women, those undergoing fertility treatment, or those taking HRT experience raised oestrogen levels. While normal oestrogen levels prevent nighttime waking and early rising, raised levels may increase levels of cortisol, meaning both the body and brain may find it harder to relax and wind down.⁸

Progesterone has a mild sedative effect, which, when at a normal level, can make it easier to fall and stay asleep.⁹ However, raised progesterone levels can increase core body temperature, which can interfere with sleep onset and continuity, particularly during the luteal phase. Add in swinging oestrogen levels and physical symptoms like cramps and headaches, and it’s clear to see why many women struggle to have consistent, undisturbed sleep throughout the month. 

Across the menstrual cycle, hormone levels shift on a weekly basis and can impact sleep at each stage. Many women notice:¹⁰

• Less REM sleep in the luteal phase, leading to feeling less rested despite sleeping longer

• Raised body temperature and increased night waking during the ovulation and luteal phases

• Low energy and fatigue during the luteal phase that may make exercise and daily tasks more difficult

Perimenopause and menopause

Sleep disruption is one of the most commonly reported symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, affecting more than 40% of women.¹¹ During perimenopause, oestrogen and progesterone levels fluctuate unpredictably, often leading to sleep disturbances that can’t be tracked to a regular menstrual cycle. Once menopause occurs (marked 12 months after the last menstrual period), levels fall as ovarian production ceases fully, and stabilise at a low level.

This can lead to:⁴

• Difficulty falling and staying asleep

• Early morning waking

• Night sweats and hot flushes

• Increased risk of insomnia

Circadian rhythms: women are more sensitive to disruption

Circadian rhythms are the body’s internal clock. They control sleep-wake timing,  hormone release, and metabolic function.^12,13

Research suggests women’s circadian rhythms follow a slightly earlier clock than men’s and are more sensitive to circadian misalignment.¹² All the highs and lows of modern life - late nights, irregular schedules, shift work, and busy social diaries - may therefore have a greater impact on women’s sleep quality and energy levels. 

Not only this, but with women taking on the majority of domestic labour in the home, their circadian rhythms are often more likely to be impacted by both the mental load of the household and the sleep schedules of other people, including partners, young children, and ageing parents.¹⁵

Circadian disruption has also been linked to insulin insensitivity and dysregulation of the hunger hormones leptin (your satiety signal) and ghrelin (your hunger signal), helping to explain why poor sleep can be associated with weight gain, diabetes and obesity over time.¹⁶ 

When poor sleep is a hormonal signal

Sleep advice often focuses on behaviour: bedtime routines, screens, caffeine, and stress management. While these matter, they don’t address the root causes of sleep disruption for many women. Sometimes you do everything “right”, and still feel exhausted.

Sleep problems may be hormone-driven if you notice:

• Waking consistently between 2-4am

• Sleep worsening around your ovulation, luteal, or menstruation phases

• New insomnia during your 40s or 50s

• Night sweats or sudden temperature changes

• Feeling unrefreshed despite adequate sleep time

In these cases, better sleep hygiene alone may not be enough.

Understanding your hormones to support better sleep

Hormonal imbalances can affect how effectively you cycle through your sleep stages, the timings of your circadian rhythms, and your brain’s overnight recovery, but symptoms don’t always clearly indicate what’s happening beneath the surface.

An at-home hormone blood test can help to identify imbalances that may be contributing to sleep disruption. With clearer insight into your hormone levels, our expert clinicians can recommend treatment and lifestyle changes targeted to suit your body’s individual needs, and suggest both medical and lifestyle changes that could get you on the road back to a good night’s rest.

Sleep and healthspan: why this matters long term

Sleep quality affects more than just how you’ll feel on the morning commute. It’s vital for living a long, healthy life. 

Chronic poor sleep is linked to:¹⁷

• Cardiometabolic disease

• Insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes

• Cognitive decline

• Mood disorders

• Increased inflammation

As women are more hormonally sensitive to sleep disruption, the long-term health impact of poor sleep may be greater, particularly during periods of hormonal change. This might help to explain why sleep problems often sit alongside other health conditions, such as PCOS, pregnancy, and perimenopause, rather than appearing in isolation.

The numan take

Good quality sleep is crucial for both women and men to live a long and healthy life. Hormones, circadian rhythms, and differentiating lifestyle factors all increase women’s need for restorative sleep, meaning that, on average, they need more sleep than men. Prioritising sleep isn’t indulgent. It’s preventative healthcare.

Understanding what’s driving any changes in your sleep patterns is often the first step toward improving them and protecting your healthspan years into the future.

References

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10. Baker FC, Driver HS. Circadian rhythms, sleep, and the menstrual cycle. Sleep Medicine. 2007 Sep;8(6):613–22. (progesterone, temperature, sleep)

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