Goel Namni, Kim Hyungsoo, Lao Raymund P
Department of Psychology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut 06459, USA.
Chronobiol Int. 2005;22(5):905-15. doi: 10.1080/07420520500263235.
Middle-aged and elderly populations exhibit gender differences in polysomnographic (PSG) sleep; however, whether young men and women also show such differences remains unclear. Thirty-one young healthy sleepers (16 men and 15 women, aged 18 to 30 yr, mean+/-SD, 20.5+/-2.4 yr) completed 3 consecutive overnight sessions in a sleep laboratory, after maintaining a stable sleep-wake cycle for 1 wk before study entry. Standard PSG sleep and self-rated sleepiness data were collected each night. Across nights, women showed better sleep quality than men: they fell asleep faster (shorter sleep onset latency) and had better sleep efficiency, with more time asleep and less time awake (all differences showed large effect sizes, d=0.98 to 1.12). By contrast, men were sleepier than women across nights. Both men and women demonstrated poorer overall sleep quality on the first night compared with the subsequent 2 nights of study. We conclude young adult healthy sleepers show robust gender differences in PSG sleep, like older populations, with better sleep quality in women than in men. These results highlight the importance of gender in sleep and circadian rhythm research studies employing young subjects and have broader implications for women's health issues relating to these topics.
中年和老年人群在多导睡眠图（PSG）睡眠方面存在性别差异；然而，年轻男性和女性是否也存在这种差异尚不清楚。31名年轻健康睡眠者（16名男性和15名女性，年龄18至30岁，平均±标准差，20.5±2.4岁）在睡眠实验室连续完成3个夜间睡眠监测，在研究开始前保持1周稳定的睡眠-觉醒周期。每晚收集标准PSG睡眠和自我评定的嗜睡数据。在整个监测期间，女性的睡眠质量优于男性：她们入睡更快（睡眠起始潜伏期更短）且睡眠效率更高，睡眠时间更长，清醒时间更短（所有差异均显示出较大的效应量，d=0.98至1.12）。相比之下，在整个监测期间男性比女性更嗜睡。与研究的后两晚相比，男性和女性在第一晚的总体睡眠质量都较差。我们得出结论，年轻的健康睡眠者在PSG睡眠方面也像老年人群一样存在明显的性别差异，女性的睡眠质量优于男性。这些结果凸显了性别在以年轻受试者为对象的睡眠和昼夜节律研究中的重要性，并对与这些主题相关的女性健康问题具有更广泛的意义。
