Younger Women May Build Up "Sleep Debt" More Easily than Older Women

When it comes to sleep deprivation, who fares better -- older women or younger women? A recent study conducted in Belgium and published in the October issue of Journal SLEEP shows that older women may have the upper hand when asked to function without sleep. The study of 21 women, eleven participants aged 20-30 and 10 aged 55-65 were all nonsmokers with no sleep problems. The older women had gone through menopause, none of the women were taking hormones and all the women averaged about eight hours of sleep per night. The study tested these 21 women's sleep deprivation stamina by disrupting their sleep schedules. The first night the women had a full night's sleep; followed by three nights of four hours of sleep from 1am-5am, and followed by another full night’s sleep. Throughout the tests the women wore EEG monitors to determine whether they succumbed to napping, even though napping was forbidden. Researchers also performed tests on reaction time, memory and attention to determine their level of functioning without much sleep.

By the end of the study, sleep deprivation had taken a toll on the younger women. They inadvertently napped more frequently than the older women, showed higher rates of sleepiness and reduced performance on tests, all signs of "sleep debt." While the older women's performance decreased, they functioned far better than their younger counterparts. Researchers noted that the older women seemed to "adapt" to the sleep restriction, whereas the younger women became increasingly impaired. The small number of participants in the study may limit the implications of the results, but the findings do provide evidence that older women experience sleep restriction differently than younger women. The researchers postulate that older women may need less sleep than younger women, though this is a controversial matter and the results are not conclusive.