Quantity and quality: Why women need more sleep than they think

Getting enough good quality sleep is essential for our health and wellbeing, but women can face unique challenges when it comes to getting a good night’s sleep. Hormonal fluctuations, pregnancy, menopause, sleep disorders and competing demands can all influence sleep, and sleep quality, throughout a woman’s life. Understanding these can help women recognise when their sleep may need some extra attention.

It’s not just the amount of sleep you get

Sleep needs vary from person to person, so the optimal amount of sleep, or extra sleep, women might need will be different depending on life stage and circumstance. However, evidence suggests that women tend to sleep slightly longer than men, and that spending more time asleep doesn’t necessarily mean feeling more rested.^1,2

Repeated awakenings or other sleep disruptions, whatever the cause may be, can mean that even after spending enough hours in bed, you may not wake feeling refreshed.

Good sleep is about quality as well as quantity.

Hormones can influence sleep

Hormonal fluctuations can be one reason why women’s sleep quality and sleep needs can vary throughout their lives.

As women move through puberty into adulthood, fluctuations in reproductive hormones across the menstrual cycle can affect sleep, with women commonly reporting greater sleep disturbance around the premenstrual phase and menstruation.³

Pregnancy brings another significant period of change. Evidence has shown that insomnia symptoms become increasingly common as pregnancy progresses, rising from around 25% in the first trimester to more than 40% in the third trimester.⁴ Physical discomfort, needing to urinate more often, and difficulty finding a comfortable sleeping position can also interfere with sleep. Restless legs syndrome and sleep-disordered breathing can also occur during pregnancy.⁴

Perimenopause and menopause in later life can again affect sleep for many women. Around 40-60% of women experience sleep disturbances during this stage of life.⁵ Changes in hormone levels can affect sleep and circadian regulation as well as hot flushes, night sweats, anxiety and mood changes which can contribute to interrupted sleep.⁵

What else can affect women’s sleep?

Hormones aren’t the whole story. Women, and certainly any person, may experience other factors that make consistent restorative sleep harder to achieve, including:

• Caring for babies, children and other family members¹
• Competing paid and unpaid work responsibilities^1,4
• Insomnia, sleep apnoea or restless legs
• Life stressors and mental health challenges such as anxiety or depression
• Lack of a regular sleep routine
• Having a partner that disrupts your sleep (e.g. snores)

Importantly, sleep can be influenced by our circumstances, as well as our biology.

Listen to your body

Instead of focusing on whether women need a specific number of extra minutes of sleep, it can be more helpful to consider whether you’re getting enough restorative sleep for your individual needs.

Consistently feeling tired or sleepy despite having enough hours of sleep, regularly struggling to fall or stay asleep, or experiencing ongoing sleep disruption may be signs that your sleep needs some attention.

Sleep requirements and challenges can change throughout life. Recognising those changes, and making quality sleep a priority, is an important part of supporting women’s overall health and wellbeing.

Sleep hygiene tips

Establishing some good sleep habits can help you get better quality sleep. If you’re not already, start by:

• Set a consistent sleep schedule (i.e. regular wake up time and bed time)
• Limit screen time at least 1 hour before bed
• Stay active during the day and eat nutritious foods
• Avoid caffeine in the evening
• Create a calm and relaxing sleep environment (e.g. ensure bedding is suitable for the season, invest in some comfortable pillows, sleep in a dark room, add a white noise machine if that’s helpful to you)
• Wind down before heading to your sleep space

These sleep tips can help support women to achieve better quality sleep in amongst life’s demands.

If you’re consistently feeling tired despite making these changes, don’t ignore it. Constant fatigue could be a sign of an underlying issue so speak to your doctor to explore what’s going on.

Related articles

1. Get the sleep you need: small changes for better rest
2. Can nutrition help you sleep better?
3. Tired all the time? Discover why and caffeine-free ways to boost your energy

Sources

1. Burgard SA, Ailshire JA. Gender and time for sleep among U.S. adults. Am Sociol Rev. 2013;78(1):51–69. doi:10.1177/0003122412472048.
2. Hughes J, Walther S, Batterson K. 0192 Do women need more sleep than men? A study on gender differences in college student sleep and mental health. Sleep. 2025;48(Suppl 1):A86. doi:10.1093/sleep/zsaf090.0192.
3. Sharkey KM, Crawford SL, Kim S, Joffe H. Objective sleep interruption and reproductive hormone dynamics in the menstrual cycle. Sleep Med. 2014;15(6):688–693. doi:10.1016/j.sleep.2014.02.003.
4. Kember AJ, Elangainesan P, Ferraro ZM, Jones C, Hobson SR. Common sleep disorders in pregnancy: a review. Front Med (Lausanne). 2023;10:1235252. doi:10.3389/fmed.2023.1235252.
5. Tamanna S, Ullah MI, Iftekhar R, Shamsuddin L. Sleep disturbances in menopause: neuroendocrine mechanisms and clinical implications. Physiologia. 2026;6(2):22. doi:10.3390/physiologia6020022.