Sleep: Her vs. Him

Do you get enough sleep at night? Oops, let me rephrase: Do you feel like you get enough sleep at night? How about your spouse, how does he sleep at night?

Statistics Canada has been busy dissecting our sleep kinks and quirks and has come up with some interesting findings in their recent report Who Gets Any Sleep These Days? Sleep Patterns of Canadians. For example, longer workdays, commuting and having children in the home all have adverse affect on sleep habits. (Shocking!) The report also found that higher income earners get less sleep. (Because they’re always at work?)

The pièce de résistance of their findings though, was that women get more sleep than men. It just may not feel that way. He sleeps like a log and an earthquake couldn’t turn him over, yet you still may get more zzzz’s. You see, the study found that men tend to get more of that restful sleep, while women have a harder time falling asleep and wake more easily throughout the night. This poor quality of sleep is what makes you feel like you haven’t slept at all, even though you really may have clocked more hours than your counterpart.

By all means, blame your significant other’s snoring and feel resentful when he’s off in La-La-Land and you’re busy counting the dust bunnies creeping around your nightstand. Consider that maybe he’s read our article on how to Stop Losing Sleep while you’ve been mentally prepping for your upcoming day.

But just in case you’re tempted to call StatsCan for a recount, you should know that they did double-check their findings, having come to the same conclusion in both their 1998 and 1992 studies.

I, for one, plan on sleeping soundly tonight – even if that means that I have to work out before bedtime. What do you do to get a good night’s sleep?