It may be a really good idea to let sleeping fathers lie. The latest research proves that men are much more susceptible to the effects of sleep deprivation than women.
The scientists claim that these results may help explain why men are at much higher risk of heart disease and usually do not live as long as women.
The research that is to be presented next week at the 85th Annual Meeting of The Endocrine Society in Philadelphia, compared the effects of sleep deprivation among a group of twenty five healthy people of both genders.
During the initial four days of the study, the participants slept for eight hours and later they were restricted to six hours of sleep within the following seven days.
The scientists have discovered that the women handled the sleep deprivation considerably better than men, both physically and hormonally.
After one week of sleep deprivation, the men revealed higher levels of tumor necrosis factor, a protein that raises inflammation. Elevated levels of this protein have been connected with a heart disease, high blood pressure, and insulin resistance (a condition that frequently results in diabetes).
Following the sleep deprivation, the investigators also discovered that women were able to sleep more deeply than men and were less influenced by disturbances in their sleep, such as taking a blood sample.
"The pre-menopausal women were much more flexible to the effects of sleep loss," explains the investigator Alexandros Vgontzas, MD, of Pennsylvania State University, in a news release. "In our research, when women lost sleep, they were capable of consolidating the sleep that they did not get. Men were not able to do this and frequently felt the negative consequences of the sleep loss more than the women."
According to the scientists, these results are in line with previous research that have proven that women usually have better quality and quantity of sleep, in spite of increased demands on their personal time.
"There is a definite dissimilarity in sleeping patterns among men and women," claims Vgontzas. "Historically, women have had demands, such as infant and child care, which have decreased their ability to sleep through the night. Our latest study demonstrates that there is a marked physical change in women, which may have helped to protect them from sleep loss."
According to the estimates of The National Sleep Foundation, up to forty million American citizens suffer from serious sleep disorders. Persistent sleep deprivation may raise the risk of various health problems.
