News & Views

 

Women in data - a new study
 

Research by Women in Data (www.womenindata.co.uk) reveals that people with a higher level of physical activity sleep around 75 minutes longer on average, experience better sleep quality, suffer from fewer sleep disorders, and are therefore likely to be more productive in the workplace.

Undertaken during a recent virtual sleep hackathon hosted by Women in Data® in alliance with Capgemini, the research also analysed publicly available datasets from the Harvard Medical School and SaYoPillow smart pillow to investigate sleep quality and its effects on health.

Stress remains the leading factor impacting sleep – whether it is personal stress or workplace stress, or a combination of both – moderate levels of physical activity was found to have a much better impact on sleep quality compared to intense physical activity.  While being active could improve sleep, there is a marked difference between genders: physical activity is more effective for men compared to women in achieving better sleep outcomes.  
 
The data scientists pointed out that women are also 1.3 to 1.8 times more likely to face sleep issues than men, with 44% of women getting less than seven hours of sleep.   “We know from other studies that Women are 40% more likely to experience insomnia in their lifetime compared to men, so we wanted to gain deeper insights into the key factors affecting sleep quality.  Poor sleep affects both our physical and mental health, while sleep deprivation is associated with cardiovascular diseases, poor mood, and dementia,” says Natalie Cramp, Chair of the Women’s Health Agenda, Women in Data.

“It is clear that age, gender and demographics, as well as physical activity and stress, all influence how well we sleep.  While we can’t do anything about the inherent aspects of our health, we can try to incorporate more behaviours that aid sleep, such as managing stress levels or being physically active.”
 
“Women in Data® is committed to achieving gender parity for women in the data, analytics and AI industry and as such women’s health and wellbeing is high on our agenda,” continues Cramp.  “We would like to see greater science backed health recommendations across the spectrum of women’s health which empower us all to take the actions we can to get the help we need and make lifestyle changes which prevent overmedication.”

This year's Women in Data conference will be held on 7 March 2024 at the Intercontinental, O2 in London.  For more information see https://womenindata.swoogo.com/flagship_event_2024/Home