More than half of women say they get a good night's sleep only a few nights per week or less, finds a new study. And their fatigue is leaving them late for work, stressed out, and too tired for friends or family.
According to a poll by the National Sleep Foundation in the U.S., nearly 70 per cent of women say they frequently have a problem sleeping, and 60 per cent only get a good night's sleep a few nights a week.
While the study polled only American women, the results in Canada would likely be similar.
The study found that 72 per cent of working mothers and 68 per cent of single working women suffered from insomnia. Stay-at-home mothers had even more difficulties, with 74 per cent of them saying they suffered insomnia at least a few nights a week.
Dr. Meir Kryger, the chairman of the 2007 Sleep in America Poll, finds women are trying to juggle too many duties.
"Women are blindsided by their biology," he told Canada AM. "They have periods, they become pregnant, they have babies and the babies keep them awake.
"They have problems when they try to juggle too many things in their life. They're the first to wake up in the morning and the last to go to sleep at night. And they do chores, they do stuff right until the very end of the day. So they just don't sleep enough."
Kryger notes that many women reported they were constantly getting by on six or fewer hours of sleep a night.
"That deficit adds up and people are tired and they have trouble driving. We found there was a lot of daytime sleepiness in that group," he says.
The survey found that when pressed for time, about one half of women responded that sleep and exercise were the first things sacrificed. When women were tired, 39 per cent also reduced the time they spent with friends and family, 37 per cent stopped eating healthily and 33 per cent stopped having sex with their partner.
Instead of trying to get to bed early to make up for lost sleep, 87 per cent of women said they watched television in the hour before going to sleep and 37 percent did other activities.
Kryger says that's a mistake.
"Women need to make sleep a priority," he advises. "They need to decide the following: 'I'm feeling lousy in the daytime and the only way for me to feel better is I have to sleep more.' And they have to make a real attempt to sleep more."
What overworked women don't need -- if they are simply overtired and not suffering from a genuine sleep disorder -- is medication, Kryger believes.
"These are not people who need medication; they are people who need to prioritize their lives, really."
