Most adults require between seven and nine hours of sleep per night. Sleep needs decrease with age, starting with 14-17 hours at birth and decreasing to around seven to eight hours after age 65. But in addition to age, research also shows that there are differences in the sleep requirements of men versus women, with women requiring more sleep.
According to neurologist and sleep medicine physician Jeffrey Durmer, women tend to sleep longer than men, go to sleep earlier, and experience more deep sleep. The deepest stage of sleep is the third stage of NREM — most people spend about a quarter of the night in this stage, a time when the brain slows and the body repairs itself. While we may know that women tend to need more sleep than men, we’re still not entirely sure why.
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