Gender differences in objective and self-reported sleep
Abstract
Abstract It is not clear whether gender differences in self-reported sleep reflect polysomnographical differences. We here investigated gender differences in polysomnography (PSG) variables and their association with rated sleep quality for recorded sleep. The participants were 238 women and 238 men who were recorded for a night with PSG (home recordings), and provided sleep quality ratings for the recorded night. Analyses of variance showed that women reported significantly lower sleep quality than men, but it showed significantly better PSG sleep (fewer awakenings per hour, lower N1%, longer total sleep time, higher sleep efficiency, and more N3%, among others). However, men underestimated their objective number of awakenings and had a shorter objective time awake per objective awakening (6.4 ± .6 vs 8.2 ± .6 minutes for women, p < .05). Men with short awakenings (
Fields of Study & Subjects
Sleep and related disorders
Sleep and Wakefulness Research
Sleep and Work-Related Fatigue
Publication details
- Journal / source
- SLEEP Advances
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- zpag048–zpag048
- Publication date
- 1 January 2026
- Language
- EN