Real Men Don’t Sleep

Research find this masculine stereotype hurts men.

Alison Escalante MD

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The sleep-deprived masculinity stereotype encourages men to miss out on the sleep they need. Photo by Doğukan Şahin on Unsplash.

Sleep deprivation is the norm for adults in America. The CDC recommends a bare minimum of 7 hours, but the average adult in the U.S. gets less than that. And that’s not working out well because just under half of Americans report negative consequences resulting from their sleep loss. And it’s worse for men, because sleep deprivation is more common among men than women. Researchers at the University of Oregon believe that this is due to “The Sleep-Deprived Masculinity Stereotype,” which is also the name of their paper published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

The study authors examined the idea that men don’t get enough sleep in part because of stereotypes about what it means to be a man. They found that getting less sleep is perceived as manly, as if real men don’t need sleep.

When I think of icons of masculinity, I think of characters like Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his 1980s movies shouting something along the lines of “I am impervious to physical pain.” And I can just as easily imagine him saying, “Sleep is for the weak,” or “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.”

Yet science is unequivocal in the assessment that sleep makes you strong, and not sleeping is more likely to make you dead sooner. So when men, and particularly…

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Alison Escalante MD

How can we take effective action under pressure? Forbes Contributor | TEDx Speaker | Pediatrician | PsychToday | ShouldStorm.com