Physical Wellness

Men Are Better Than Women In Dealing With Disrupted Sleep

By Brian McNeill | Update Date: Apr 21, 2016 08:08 PM EDT

Sleep disruptions are normal for anyone but the question is who comes out of it better? Males or females?

If the recent study made by the Sleep Research Centre is to be believed, such shows that men handle sleep disruption better than their female counterparts whenever their circadian rhythm is thrown off sync.

The research included 16 females and 18 males, both kept under close watch via 28-hour a day cycles under a controlled environment. That included no natural light-dark cycles to see how either could cope with the sleep-wake cycle tied up with their respective body clocks.

The setup is close to how a person feels when he or she suffers from jetlag or when they find themselves in unusual shifts.

The results were derived by researchers when they assigned tests every three hours while they were awake to see how they would respond under the conditions. Among the tests made include self-assessments of their sleepiness, mood and effort which technically measured their cognitive performance.

The Telegraph reports that out of the 39 tests rendered, men returned a higher score over their female counterparts at 28.

Aside from the tests given to the participants, brain electric activity was also monitored while they were asleep. It turns out that females showed more erratic brain activity when they are sleep deprived compared to males.

"We have showed for the first time that challenging the circadian clock affects the performance of men and women differently. Our research findings are significant in view of shift work-related cognitive deficits and changes in mood. Extrapolation of these results would suggest that women may be more affected by night-shift work than men," explained Dr. Nayantara Santhi, one of the authors of the study.

With the study, such proves that circadian rhythmicity is indeed affected by brain function and such differs between sexes.

In this modern day and age, it is a fact that both men and women have to adjust their sleeping patterns due to work. Some find themselves having to adjust their working schedule due to time sensitivity related to their line of work while others have to deal with the differences in time zones, particularly when they travel.

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