Men and Women Have Different Body Clocks

Researchers have been looking more and more into the differences in the sexes when it comes to sleep, trying to find answers to why women have insomnia more than men, and if differences in sleep patters explains why women live longer than men. A new study presented earlier this summer may explain why men seem to be more inclined to be “night owls”.

According to the research, which studied the sleeping patterns of 157 people, men have a longer “circadian rhythm” than women — by a total of six minutes. That may not seem like much, it compounds day after day. This means men are more likely to go to bed a little later every day when they don’t have something that forces them into bed earlier. By contrast, twice as many women as men had a body clock that was actually shorter than 24 hours, which means they’re more inclined to go to bed earlier.

Researchers determined circadian period by measuring core body temperature and levels of the hormone melatonin.

Source: Fox News