Prevalence of sleep problems due to the menstrual cycle was not affected by age of women who have periods. On average, sleep is disturbed 2.5 days during the menstrual cycle for all menstruating women. Most women get less sleep than they need. The average women sleeps six hours and forty-one minutes during the workweek and seven hours and sixteen minutes on the weekends. Napping is common.
Naps average one hour in length.
One quarter of women suffer from clinically significant daytime sleepiness. One half percent of women report having had an automobile accident in the past year due to falling asleep at the wheel. Sleep problems interfering with these daily activities is significantly more common among younger than older women. Note on sample and analyses The sampling procedure used in this study produces a sample representative of women 30 to 60 years of age, among the civilian telephone household population in the continental United States. Men and persons below the age of 30 or above the age of 60 were excluded from the study.