Science / Medicine : Jobs Cut Into Women’s Sleep

Working women sleep about 25 minutes less per night than their male counterparts, though the average woman sleeps slightly longer than the average man, researchers said last week. “One possible explanation is that a woman who works still has to maintain a lot of household duties,” said Jeff Biddle, assistant professor of economics at the University of Michigan. “They aren’t spending much less time doing those things, and their husbands aren’t sharing chores with them, so the time has to come from somewhere and often it comes from sleep time,” he said.

The study of the sleep habits of 1,500 people also found that people who hold jobs sleep less than people who don’t work and that for every extra hour worked, a person sleeps 15 minutes less. Men who earn a higher wage per hour sleep less than lower-paid men, the researchers found, but that pattern fails to hold up for women.

Wide variances in the amount of time people sleep were turned up by the study, with 10% reporting they sleep less than 6.5 hours a night and 10% reporting they sleep more than 9 hours. “Although it’s true we do need a certain amount of sleep, we do have some control,” Biddle said. “How much time is valued is going to enter into that decision.”