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We take an honest look at whether women really need more sleep than men, how much they should aim for and why their sleep is so easily disrupted, from hormones to busier days.
5 Min Read | By Shannan Humphrey
Last Modified 17 July 2026 First Added 4 November 2021
You know the feeling. A full night in bed, lights out for a solid eight hours, and you still wake up like you have run a marathon in your sleep. Plenty of women quietly wonder whether they are simply built to need more rest than the men around them. It is a fair question, and the answer is kinder than you might expect.
Official guidance sets the same target for every adult, roughly 7 to 9 hours a night, with no separate figure for women. What the research shows is that women tend to get more broken, lower quality sleep and often sleep a little longer to make up for it. So that tiredness is real. It has more to do with everything getting in the way of a good night than with a bigger need for sleep. Here is what is really going on.
The lowdown: There is no official guideline telling women to sleep more, and every adult is advised to get 7 to 9 hours. Women do tend to sleep slightly longer on average, mostly because hormones, health conditions and busy lives leave their nights more broken. For most women, the sticking point is sleep quality more than the number of hours.
On average, yes, by a small margin. Large studies have found that women tend to sleep a little longer than men across most stages of life, while also reporting poorer quality sleep and more daytime tiredness. The extra time looks less like a luxury and more like compensation for a rougher night.
Our own 2026 UK Sleep Survey shows the same shape. Women averaged 6.4 hours of actual sleep a night, against 6.3 hours for men. The more telling figure is time spent in bed. Women were in bed around 24 minutes longer than men, roughly 7 hours 22 minutes versus 6 hours 58 minutes, yet came away with only about 7 minutes more sleep. So women are spending longer lying awake in bed. That is a sign of disrupted sleep, and it lines up with the wider research.
If women are already sleeping slightly longer and still feeling it, the interesting part is what keeps interrupting them. A few things stack up, and they shift across a lifetime.
Sleep disorders are not shared out evenly. Women are more likely than men to report insomnia, more nighttime waking and poorer sleep quality overall. Conditions like restless legs syndrome are more common in women, too. Sleep apnoea deserves a special mention. It is often thought of as a male condition, so it frequently goes unnoticed in women, whose symptoms can present differently. Poor sleep and mental health also feed each other, so a run of broken nights can leave anyone more prone to low mood and anxiety. If insomnia is keeping you up, our guide on how to beat it is a good place to start.
This is the big one, and it runs from the teenage years right through to later life. Monthly hormone changes can disrupt sleep in the days before a period, part of the reason PMS can leave you wired one night and wiped out the next. Those same shifts can nudge your circadian rhythm, making it harder to drop off or stay asleep.
Pregnancy brings its own set of hurdles, from the extra weight and energy demands to restless legs and the endless nighttime bathroom trips. Sleep gets lighter and more broken, especially later on. Gentle approaches have some evidence behind them, with reviews suggesting calming music and mindfulness may help with pregnancy-related insomnia. Our tips for pregnancy insomnia cover the practical side.
Then comes perimenopause and menopause. Falling oestrogen, hot flushes and night sweats can eat into deep sleep, and are among the most common reasons women’s sleep takes a hit in midlife, both in the run-up to menopause and afterwards. The risk of sleep apnoea climbs after menopause, too. If overheating is the issue, cooling bedding and a cooler bedroom can take some of the edge off. Conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome add another layer and are linked with higher rates of sleep problems and daytime sleepiness.
Every household divides things differently, but on average, women still take on more of the unpaid load at home, from childcare to the life admin that keeps everything ticking over, often alongside a paid job. Where that is the case, it is frequently the woman who gets up in the night for young children, so her sleep is more likely to be chopped up even when the hours on paper look fine. Plenty of men carry this too, and whoever it falls to, full days and broken nights are a tiring combination.
There is a flip side to all this. Women are, on average, a little more likely to take their wind-down seriously, whether that means an earlier night or a proper evening routine. Making room for rest is one of the simplest ways to protect the sleep you do get, on a supportive mattress that helps rather than hinders.
Curious how much sleep you actually need? Work out your ideal bedtime and wake-up time with the Sleep Cycle Calculator.
The same as men, around 7 to 9 hours a night for most adults. If you regularly wake up tired despite hitting that range, quality is usually the thing to look at. Our guide on how many hours of sleep you need goes deeper.
Usually because their sleep is more broken. Hormones, a higher chance of insomnia, caring responsibilities and night-time waking all chip away at sleep quality, so the same number of hours can leave women less rested.
Many do. Sleep is often at its most disrupted in the run-up to a period, during pregnancy and through perimenopause and menopause, when hormone changes, discomfort and night sweats get in the way. Wanting extra rest during these stretches is completely normal.
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