Feeling a little tired there, are you, dads?
Oh, the late night Netflix-ing and then the baby was awake four million times between lights out and morning too.
Well, guess what? You shouldn’t complain, because chances are your wife, God love her, is feeling even more tired than you are.
In fact, it might be time to let her have a lie-in, we think.
According to a study from your wife’s new favorite neuroscientist, Jim Horne, a team of researchers found that women actually need 20 minutes more sleep than men. Why you might ask, (and boy; will this make sense to every mama out there):
The reason for needing the extra few minutes sleep is that women’s brains work harder and need more time to recover.
(Horne, for those wondering, is known by some as the former director of the Sleep Research Centre at Loughborough University, but is now probably most known among men as a total traitor…)
When people sleep their brains go into repair mode, and much like the aftermath of particularly wild night out, the amount of recovery needed for everyone is different. Women, who Horne says have a tendency to multitask (or “do everything” as we also refer to it), “do lots at once and are flexible — and so they use more of their actual brain than men do. And because of this tendency to multitask, our sleep need is greater.” Not only did women disproportionately suffer from poor sleep (18 percent compared to 8 percent of men), the effects of such sleeplessness led to increased anger, hostility and depression in women.”
See? If you want us to be in a jolly good mood, guys, you need to let us SLEEP.
But before you get your pajama bottoms in a twist, lads, take into account that this was a fairly small study (210 men and women were involved) and the author does point out that it does not necessarily mean that men need less sleep or that all men are the same.
Now, mamas, here a little scientific fact to show in his face the next time he pulls the covers over his head when the kids are screaming for Cornflakes at 6am!
