As a group, women tend to have more insomnia problems than men. But the better educated women are, the better they sleep.

The same does not hold true for men. In fact, for men it’s just the reverse. The better educated a man is, the less likely he is to get a good night's sleep, the research shows. The findings are based on a nationally representative Taiwanese survey on social trends (reported in the June 2005 issue of the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health) involving nearly 40,000 people aged 15 and older. Insomnia was assessed using criteria developed by the World Health Organization, and scored on a scale of 1 to 5.

These findings applied to both sexes, but rates of insomnia were still significantly higher among women, who averaged 1.22 more points on the insomnia scale than men. Sex differences in insomnia score were most noticeable for divorced/separated women. The stress associated with single parenthood, loss of income, or the stigma of a marriage break-down could all be possible factors, suggest the authors.