(U-WIRE) NORMAL, Ill. – New research by the Duke University Medical Center shows that a lack of sleep may impact women more than men.
Researchers determined overall sleep quality by using a combination of variables including the total amount of sleep, the degree of awakening during sleep and the amount of time taken to fall asleep.
The team found that women are at an increased risk of cardiovascular problems.
While both sexes are subject to psychological distress and an elevated risk of heart disease, women were especially vulnerable. “There are sex differences in sleep,” J. Catesby Ware, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said.
“Some of the problems with too little sleep are falling asleep while driving, impairment in attention, impairment in memory and increased irritability,” Ware said.
“Too little sleep also has physiological effects,” Ware added. “After several nights of only four hours of sleep, endocrine changes that occur suggest a pre-diabetic state.”
The team, led by Ed Suarez, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, focused on 210 middle-aged men and women with no history of sleep disorders.
After taking blood samples from the volunteers to determine insulin and glucose levels, the researchers concluded that as many as 40 percent of those involved with the study could be classified as poor sleepers.
Many of the participants had a difficult time falling asleep or awoke repeatedly throughout the night.
Suarez noted that taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep could “be indicative of excessive activation of the sympathetic nervous system.”
“It is possible that taking a long time to sleep is due to increases in stress that lead to a person being too biologically active which prevents sleep induction,” Suarez said.
Suarez went on to say that this potential phenomenon is one of several he hopes to analyze in the future.
Suarez also pointed out that women are twice as likely as men to report sleeping problems.
About one-third of the women classified as poor sleepers had protein levels associated with a high risk of heart disease.
Because most sleep studies in the past have focused on men alone, researchers hope incorporating women will allow them to get a more complete picture of sleep and its associated problems.
Experts maintain that a minimum of seven hours of sleep per night is necessary for someone over the age of 18, but the exact amount of sleep needed could vary with the individual.

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