Swedish Study Finds Women Sleep Better Yet Rate Their Rest Poorer Than Men

A one-night home polysomnography study of 238 Swedish women and 238 age-matched men (ages 29-85) found that women had fewer awakenings per hour, longer total sleep time, higher sleep efficiency and more deep (stage-three) sleep, yet they rated their sleep quality lower than men. When men with brief, barely noticed awakenings were excluded, the gender gap in subjective ratings vanished.

Women sleep better than men – but experience the oppositeThe Conversation

Disturbed sleep is linked to diabetes and disease; women report problems, while prior work suggested men have poorer objective sleep, a paradox.

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The study was led by Torbjörn Åkerstedt with Johanna Schwarz, Eva Lindberg and Jenny Theorell-Haglöw. It involved Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm University and Uppsala University and was funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond, Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare and Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation.

Women sleep better than men – but experience the opposite

Women slept on average 400 minutes versus 382 minutes for men, had more stage-three deep sleep and efficiency. They experienced fewer awakenings per hour, lasting about nine minutes versus roughly seven for men. Men underestimated awakenings by 72 % (women 37 %). Men’s deep-sleep time fell faster, with men over 65 averaging 53 minutes of stage-three sleep versus 80 minutes for women.

The ConversationWomen sleep better than men – but experience the opposite

Researchers suggest men’s sleep appraisal may stem from a reduced ability to perceive or remember awakenings, while women’s heightened awareness of such episodes could lower their subjective ratings. They note cause of perception gap is unknown and call for long-term studies to test stability of findings.

Women sleep better than men – but experience the opposite

The study recorded only one night of sleep, limiting insight into habitual patterns. It does not explain why women detect awakenings more readily, nor does it examine other factors such as stress or hormonal cycles that could influence perception.

Women sleep better than men – but experience the opposite

• “It’s a paradox, but we have found a possible explanation for why sleep quality is perceived so differently by men and women,” — Torbjörn Åkerstedt, Professor Emeritus, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet

Women sleep better than men – but experience the opposite

• “Our results suggest that men’s more positive view of their sleep may be partly due to them not perceiving or remembering short awakenings during the night as well as women do,” — Torbjörn Åkerstedt

Women sleep better than men – but experience the opposite

• “Men, on the other hand, grossly underestimated their number of awakenings (by 72% compared to women’s 37%).” — Torbjörn Åkerstedt et al., Sleep Advances study

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• “It also includes our own subjective experiences, which can impact our wellbeing and how rested we feel.” — Study authors

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Future research should involve multi-night recordings to verify whether gender differences persist, explore biological or psychological mechanisms behind women’s heightened awareness of brief awakenings, and investigate why men’s objective sleep quality declines more rapidly with age.

Women sleep better than men – but experience the opposite