Women’s Sleep Statistics: What the Data Shows About How Women Sleep

Women report more sleep trouble than men, and it shows up in nearly every national survey. But how many women actually sleep less than 7 hours? How common is insomnia, and how many women have sleep apnea without knowing it?

What works when sleep goes wrong? This page gathers the most reliable answers in one place.

The numbers come from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the National Sleep Foundation, the American College of Physicians and peer-reviewed studies. It’s written for women 25 and up.

Every figure links to its original source at the bottom of the page. Data last checked November 2026.

Jump to a sectionIn this article16 sections

1. Key Women’s Sleep Statistics at a Glance
2. How Many Women Sleep Less Than 7 Hours?
3. How Much Sleep Women Need
4. Trouble Falling and Staying Asleep
5. Insomnia in Women vs. Men
6. Sleep Medication and Melatonin Use
7. Sleep Across the Menopause Transition
8. Sleep Apnea in Women
9. Sleep and Weight Gain
10. Sleep and Mental Health
11. Caffeine, Screens and Bedtime Habits
12. What Actually Improves Sleep
13. What These Numbers Mean for You
14. How to Cite These Statistics
15. Sources
16. Frequently Asked Questions

Key Women’s Sleep Statistics at a Glance

• 30.4% of U.S. women sleep less than 7 hours in a typical 24-hour period, about the same as men (30.6%).¹
• 18.5% of women have trouble falling asleep most days or every day, compared with 12.2% of men.¹
• 21.4% of women have trouble staying asleep most days or every day, compared with 14.6% of men.¹
• Only 51.7% of women wake up feeling well-rested most days, compared with 58.2% of men.¹
• Among women 45 to 64, 30.7% sleep less than 7 hours, the highest of any female age group.²
• Across studies of more than 1.2 million people, women were 41% more likely than men to have insomnia.⁶
• 10.2% of women take sleep medication most days or every day, compared with 6.6% of men.⁷
• About 9% of women 50 to 70 have moderate to severe sleep apnea.⁹
• An estimated 93% of women with moderate to severe sleep apnea had never been diagnosed.¹⁰
• Women who slept 5 hours or less were 32% more likely to gain 33 pounds or more over 16 years than women who slept 7 hours.¹²
• People with insomnia had about 2.6 times the odds of developing depression later.¹³
• Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) helped people fall asleep 19 minutes faster and cut time awake at night by 26 minutes.¹⁷

How Many Women Sleep Less Than 7 Hours?

The National Health Interview Survey asks adults how many hours they sleep in an average 24-hour period. In 2024, men and women were almost even on sleep time, but women came out behind on sleep quality:¹

Measure (2024)	Women	Men
Under 7 hours	30.4%	30.6%
Can’t fall asleep	18.5%	12.2%
Can’t stay asleep	21.4%	14.6%
Wake well-rested	51.7%	58.2%

• Trouble falling or staying asleep means “most days” or “every day.” Waking well-rested also means most days or every day.¹
• Among all adults, short sleep peaked at 34.5% at ages 50 to 64, up from 27.2% at 18 to 34.¹
• Black adults were the most likely to sleep less than 7 hours (40.2%), compared with 27.9% to 29.0% of Asian, White and Hispanic adults.¹

The 2024 report doesn’t split women by age. The most recent breakdown by sex and age comes from the 2020 survey:²

Age	Women	Men
18–44	25.6%	28.8%
45–64	30.7%	31.1%
65+	25.5%	22.6%
All 18+	27.2%	28.3%

Women 18 to 44 were less likely than men their age to sleep under 7 hours. At 65 and older, the pattern flipped and women were more likely to run short.²

How Much Sleep Women Need

Two expert panels set the targets most sources use. Neither gives women a different number than men:

Age	Recommended	Panel
18–60	7+ hours	AASM/SRS4
18–64	7–9 hours	NSF5
65+	7–8 hours	NSF5

• The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society found that regularly sleeping less than 7 hours is linked to weight gain, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, depression and a higher risk of death.⁴
• The same panel set no upper limit. More than 9 hours may suit young adults, people catching up on lost sleep or people who are ill.⁴
• The National Sleep Foundation lists 6 hours as “may be appropriate” for some adults 18 to 64, and fewer than 6 as not recommended.⁵

You’ll often read that women need 20 minutes more sleep than men. That figure traces to a sleep researcher’s book and press interviews, not to a published measurement of women’s sleep need. Neither expert panel sets a different range for women.^4,5

Want to find your own bedtime? My sleep calculator works backward from your wake-up time, and the free sleep score quiz checks your habits in 2 minutes.

Trouble Falling and Staying Asleep

Sleep trouble among women edged up between the 2020 and 2024 national surveys:^1,3

Women	2020	2024
Can’t fall asleep	17.1%	18.5%
Can’t stay asleep	20.7%	21.4%

These are survey estimates from two separate years, so treat the change as a direction, not a precise trend. Age matters too. Among all adults in 2024, staying asleep got harder with age while feeling rested got easier after 50:¹

Age	Can’t stay asleep	Wake rested
18–34	12.7%	52.2%
35–49	16.9%	50.1%
50–64	22.3%	54.5%
65+	21.7%	63.5%

Trouble falling asleep went the other way, dropping from 18.3% at ages 18 to 34 to 12.8% at 65 and older.¹

Insomnia in Women vs. Men

Sleep trouble on a survey isn’t the same as an insomnia diagnosis, but both point the same way. A meta-analysis of 29 studies with 1,265,015 people found women had a 41% higher risk of insomnia than men.⁶

• The gap was larger in bigger, higher-quality studies.⁶
• It held no matter how insomnia was defined or how often symptoms had to occur.⁶
• It showed up across regions, though it was smaller in East Asia.⁶

For practical fixes, see how to fall asleep faster, why you wake up at 3am and the sleep and hormones connection.

Sleep Medication and Melatonin Use

In 2020, 8.4% of U.S. adults took medicine to help them fall or stay asleep most days or every day. Women used it more than men at every age:⁷

Age	Women	Men
18–44	6.5%	4.7%
45–64	13.0%	7.1%
65+	13.5%	10.1%
All 18+	10.2%	6.6%

• Use roughly doubled for women between the 18 to 44 and 45 to 64 age groups.⁷
• Melatonin use among U.S. adults rose from 0.4% in 1999–2000 to 2.1% in 2017–2018, a fivefold jump. The trend was similar for women and men.⁸
• Use of more than 5 mg of melatonin a day went from 0.08% to 0.28% of adults between 2005–2006 and 2017–2018.⁸

More on this in is melatonin safe every night and natural sleep aids for women.

Sleep Across the Menopause Transition

Midlife is when sleep complaints and sleep medicine use both climb for women. The national data above shows women 45 to 64 using sleep medication about twice as often as women under 45.⁷

Hot flashes, night sweats and sleep changes across perimenopause and menopause have their own figures. You’ll find them, with sources, in my menopause statistics.

Sleep Apnea in Women

Sleep apnea is often thought of as a man’s problem. It is more common in men, but it rises sharply in women after midlife. These are U.S. estimates of moderate to severe sleep apnea, measured with overnight sleep studies:⁹

Group	Ages 30–49	Ages 50–70
Women	3%	9%
Men	10%	17%

• Moderate to severe means 15 or more breathing pauses or partial pauses an hour. These rates rose 14% to 55% over two decades, depending on the group, as obesity rose.⁹
• In a Wisconsin study of 4,925 working adults, an estimated 93% of women and 82% of men with moderate to severe sleep apnea had never been diagnosed.¹⁰
• Worldwide, an estimated 936 million adults 30 to 69 have some degree of sleep apnea, and 425 million have moderate to severe disease.¹¹

Loud snoring, gasping at night and daytime sleepiness are worth raising with your doctor. See obstructive sleep apnea causes and treatments.

Sleep and Weight Gain

The Nurses’ Health Study followed 68,183 women for 16 years. Compared with women who slept 7 hours:¹²

Sleep	Gain 33+ lb	Obesity
5 hours or less	32% more likely	15% more likely
6 hours	12% more likely	6% more likely

This was an observational study, so it shows a link, not proof that short sleep caused the gain. For the bigger weight picture, see my weight loss and obesity statistics and how sleep affects weight gain.

Sleep and Mental Health

Poor sleep and low mood feed each other. A meta-analysis of 21 long-term studies found that people with insomnia had about 2.6 times the odds of developing depression later than people who slept well.¹³

The AASM/SRS panel also lists depression among the outcomes linked to regularly sleeping less than 7 hours.⁴ Read more in how poor sleep affects mental health and anxiety at night.

Caffeine, Screens and Bedtime Habits

Two small but well-designed lab studies show how much evening habits can matter. Both had just 12 participants, so read them as strong signals, not population rates.

• Caffeine: 400 mg of caffeine (about 2 to 3 cups of coffee) taken even 6 hours before bed cut measured sleep by more than an hour. Participants didn’t notice the loss.¹⁴
• Screens: Reading on a light-emitting e-reader for 4 hours before bed suppressed evening melatonin by about 55%, compared with no suppression for a printed book.¹⁵
• E-reader nights also meant taking longer to fall asleep, less REM sleep and feeling less alert the next morning.¹⁵

Check your own intake with the caffeine calculator, and see afternoon coffee and sleep and sleep hygiene beyond blue light.

What Actually Improves Sleep

The American College of Physicians recommends cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the first treatment for all adults with chronic insomnia, a strong recommendation.¹⁶ A meta-analysis of 20 trials (64% women, average age 56) found:¹⁷

Measure	Change with CBT-I
Time to fall asleep	19 min faster
Awake during night	26 min less
Sleep efficiency	Up 9.9 points
Total sleep	Up 7.6 min (not significant)

• No adverse outcomes were reported, and the gains seemed to last at later follow-ups.¹⁷
• The ACP advises that sleep medication be considered only through shared decision-making when CBT-I alone hasn’t worked.¹⁶
• Regular exercise had moderate benefits for sleep quality and small benefits for total sleep time and sleep efficiency in a review of 66 studies.¹⁸

For calming routines, try mindfulness for insomnia, tai chi for sleep or bedtime yoga. For activity data, see my women’s exercise statistics.

What These Numbers Mean for You

Here’s my take as a coach: if you’re a woman who sleeps badly, you’re in big company. About 1 in 5 women can’t stay asleep most nights, and only about half wake up feeling rested.

Common doesn’t mean you have to live with it. Protect 7 hours in bed for actual sleep, keep caffeine to the morning and give your phone a bedtime too.

Move every day. Strength training and walking won’t fix everything, but the research is clear that regular exercise helps sleep quality.

If you’ve struggled for months, ask about CBT-I before reaching for pills. And if you snore loudly or wake up exhausted, ask about a sleep study. Most women with sleep apnea don’t know they have it.

More stats pages: menopause, weight loss, exercise, nutrition and osteoporosis.

How to Cite These Statistics

Sources

1. Ng AE, Black LI, Adjaye-Gbewonyo D. Short Sleep Duration and Sleep Difficulties Among Adults: United States, 2024. NCHS Data Brief No. 559, April 2026.
2. Adjaye-Gbewonyo D, Ng AE, Black LI. QuickStats: Percentage of Adults Aged ≥18 Years Who Sleep <7 Hours on Average in a 24-Hour Period, by Sex and Age Group, National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2020. MMWR, 2022;71(10):393.
3. Adjaye-Gbewonyo D, Ng AE, Black LI. Sleep Difficulties in Adults: United States, 2020. NCHS Data Brief No. 436, June 2022.
4. Watson NF, Badr MS, Belenky G, et al. Recommended Amount of Sleep for a Healthy Adult: A Joint Consensus Statement of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2015;11(6):591–592.
5. Hirshkowitz M, Whiton K, Albert SM, et al. National Sleep Foundation’s Sleep Time Duration Recommendations: Methodology and Results Summary. Sleep Health, 2015;1(1):40–43.
6. Zhang B, Wing YK. Sex Differences in Insomnia: A Meta-Analysis. Sleep, 2006;29(1):85–93.
7. Reuben C, Elgaddal N, Black LI. Sleep Medication Use in Adults Aged 18 and Over: United States, 2020. NCHS Data Brief No. 462, January 2023.
8. Li J, Somers VK, Xu H, Lopez-Jimenez F, Covassin N. Trends in Use of Melatonin Supplements Among US Adults, 1999–2018. JAMA, 2022;327(5):483–485.
9. Peppard PE, Young T, Barnet JH, Palta M, Hagen EW, Hla KM. Increased Prevalence of Sleep-Disordered Breathing in Adults. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2013;177(9):1006–1014.
10. Young T, Evans L, Finn L, Palta M. Estimation of the Clinically Diagnosed Proportion of Sleep Apnea Syndrome in Middle-Aged Men and Women. Sleep, 1997;20(9):705–706.
11. Benjafield AV, Ayas NT, Eastwood PR, et al. Estimation of the Global Prevalence and Burden of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: A Literature-Based Analysis. Lancet Respiratory Medicine, 2019;7(8):687–698.
12. Patel SR, Malhotra A, White DP, Gottlieb DJ, Hu FB. Association Between Reduced Sleep and Weight Gain in Women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 2006;164(10):947–954.
13. Baglioni C, Battagliese G, Feige B, et al. Insomnia as a Predictor of Depression: A Meta-Analytic Evaluation of Longitudinal Epidemiological Studies. Journal of Affective Disorders, 2011;135(1–3):10–19.
14. Drake C, Roehrs T, Shambroom J, Roth T. Caffeine Effects on Sleep Taken 0, 3, or 6 Hours Before Going to Bed. Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, 2013;9(11):1195–1200.
15. Chang AM, Aeschbach D, Duffy JF, Czeisler CA. Evening Use of Light-Emitting eReaders Negatively Affects Sleep, Circadian Timing, and Next-Morning Alertness. PNAS, 2015;112(4):1232–1237.
16. Qaseem A, Kansagara D, Forciea MA, et al. Management of Chronic Insomnia Disorder in Adults: A Clinical Practice Guideline From the American College of Physicians. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2016;165(2):125–133.
17. Trauer JM, Qian MY, Doyle JS, Rajaratnam SM, Cunnington D. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Chronic Insomnia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine, 2015;163(3):191–204.
18. Kredlow MA, Capozzoli MC, Hearon BA, Calkins AW, Otto MW. The Effects of Physical Activity on Sleep: A Meta-Analytic Review. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 2015;38(3):427–449.

Frequently Asked Questions

This page summarizes published research and government data for education only. It isn’t medical advice. Talk with your doctor before starting, stopping or changing sleep medicine or supplements such as melatonin, especially if you’re pregnant, take other medicines, or have a heart, breathing or mental health condition.

See a doctor if poor sleep lasts more than a few weeks, if you snore loudly or gasp during sleep, or if you feel dangerously sleepy while driving. If you feel hopeless or think about harming yourself, call or text 988. This page is not a substitute for personal care from a qualified professional.