Researchers at the Karolinska Institute investigated whether men and women assess their sleep differently, according to Forskning.se.
The study, published in Sleep Advances, included 238 women and 238 men between the ages of 29 and 85.
Participants had their sleep monitored at home using equipment that recorded brain activity, breathing, and body movements, among other measurements.
The following morning, they were asked to rate how well they believed they had slept.
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Brief awakenings
The researchers found that women were better at recalling how many times they had been awake during the night.
Men often estimated that they had been awake fewer times than the measurements indicated.
When the researchers excluded men who experienced only very brief awakenings from the analysis, the difference in how men and women assessed their sleep disappeared.
This suggests that these brief awakenings may be a key explanation for the difference.
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The measurements revealed the answer
The differences became more pronounced with age. Men experienced less deep sleep and more awakenings, while women's sleep changed less over time.
It was only when the researchers compared the participants' own assessments with the recorded measurements that the conclusion became clear.
On average, women slept better than men.
They had a longer total sleep duration, more deep sleep, fewer awakenings, and more efficient sleep, even though they were more likely to believe they had slept poorly.
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However, the researchers emphasize that the study is based on measurements from a single night and that further research is needed.
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