The average sleeping time for females was eight hours and 18 minutes, while males slept 7 minutes less. But there were more women who had sleeping problems compared to men.
The study covered 19,500 Canadians who keep a detailed journal of their daily activities, including sleep time.
The major factors behind the shorter sleeping hours were longer working hours and traveling time and hours spent with young children. People who needed at least one hour to go to work had 22 minutes lesser than those who live nearer their offices.
Matt Hurst, senior analysts of Statistics Canada and lead author of the study, wrote, quoted by the Globe and Mail, "People play with their sleep to make it work for their schedule."
Julie Carrier, psychology professor at the University of Montreal, pointed out high-income earners try to maintain their health by stopping smoking, adopting a healthy diet and exercising, but do nothing about their shorter sleeping time.
Carrier, quoted by the Globe and Mail, warned, "Sleep is something that people unfortunately don't believe is important - it's optional... In a society focused on productivity it's seen as something that's unproductive, which is a very wrong way of seeing things."
The lack of sleep is worsened by being married, having kids and even biological occurrences among women such as pregnancy and menstruation cycles.
