Do Women Get More Sleep Than Men

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The journal article by Sarah Burgard and Jennifer Ailshire poses the question of, do women really get more sleep than men? In past studies the answer to this question is yes. However, research in sociology shows that women, in general, often participate more in unpaid work and have less leisure time when compared to men. This is an interesting contrast to study considering the two facts seem to contradict each other. The authors make sure to point out that sleep is necessary and important to survive, so understanding why there is a gap between men and women's amount of sleep is just as important. By understanding the inequality in sleep, one can look at how to make sleep time more equal to better health and society as a whole. Throughout the …show more content…

However, the results also showed that no matter the life stage, women slept longer when compared to men, even if the two genders were in the same life stage. The second, third, and fourth hypotheses were also supported, finding that when single women and men without children were studied, gender gaps in sleep time were smaller. On the reverse, the results showed that men's sleep times were more likely to be affected by work, while women's sleep times were more likely to be affected by interruptions during sleep to care for children, a task commonly performed by women. Women were found to get more sleep during this stage of life, due to more napping time, than compared to men. However, women got less quality sleep than men due to interrupted sleep and day to day tasks, which could be the reason why women get more sleep than men, they need more of it. The authors also found that most men chose to participate in more leisure activities than women, possibly resulting in less sleep. However, the results did not show a significant enough gap between leisure time of men and women to use this as a standalone reason why women might get more sleep. The results also showed a pattern of men having more paid work of eight hours or more, while women had less paid work and more flexibility to nap or have an earlier bed time, an aspect that could also account for why women get

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