Story perspectives

Women Rate Sleep Worse Than Men Despite Better Objective Data

6/16/2026

Summary

Story summary

Researchers led by Torbjörn Åkerstedt at Karolinska Institutet reported that women rated their sleep poorer than men despite better objective sleep.
Polysomnography of 238 women and 238 men showed women slept (400 min vs 382 min), had fewer awakenings and more deep sleep, yet gave lower morning quality scores.
Excluding men with short (?8 min) awakenings removed the gender gap in sleep quality, after men had underestimated awakenings by 72 % versus women’s 37 %.

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Story summary

Researchers led by Torbjörn Åkerstedt at Karolinska Institutet reported that women rated their sleep poorer than men despite better objective sleep.
Polysomnography of 238 women and 238 men showed women slept (400 min vs 382 min), had fewer awakenings and more deep sleep, yet gave lower morning quality scores.
Excluding men with short (?8 min) awakenings removed the gender gap in sleep quality, after men had underestimated awakenings by 72 % versus women’s 37 %.