What Wakes Us Up

"How could you sleep through that?" is a common question asked of a partner. Well, it could simply be a matter of gender. New research suggests that men and women are sensitive to different things at night.

The research, carried out by MindLab for Lemsip, Found that there are many similarities between the sounds that wake us, for example snoring and sirens. However the top sleep wreckers are completely different.

For women, the noise most likely to wake them up is that of a baby crying, something that isn't even in the male top ten. Second on their list is a dripping tap, which rates number ten with men.

For men the most disturbing sound is a car alarm (number eight for women), followed by a howling wind (number nine for women).

Dr David Lewis of MindLab said:

These differing sensitivities may represent evolutionary differences that make women sensitive to sounds associated with a potential threat to their children while men are more finely tuned to disturbances posing a possible threat to the whole family.

Personally I wonder how much is evolutionary and how much is socially induced.