'Overall, the results show that gendered reactions to work-family situations accounted for more than half of the gender gap in sleep disruption,' the authors said.

'Drawing on scholarship on gender inequality on time use, we contend that sleep is an activity that is affected by gender inequality in waking role obligations,' they added.

Participants were asked about the number of hours they slept, as well as about sleep-related questions that health care workers would review in examining the health effects of sleep loss, such as, 'In the past three months, did you never, rarely, sometimes or often...'

Researchers found that gender differences in health status accounted for a substantial portion (27 percent) of the gender gap in sleep disruption, with women more likely to report health effects on sleep disruption.

These findings were presented at the 104th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association (ASA) in San Francisco.