Sleep has a big impact on both our professional and personal lives. A recent study from Washington State University showed that sleep quality can be particularly important for women’s careers. The research found that good sleep not only changes a woman’s mood but also how they feel about advancing in their careers. These career aspirations were not affected by the quality of men’s sleep.

“When women are getting a good night’s sleep and their mood is boosted, they are more likely to be oriented in their daily intentions toward achieving status and responsibility at work,” the researchers explain. “If their sleep is poor and reduces their positive mood, then we saw that they were less oriented toward those goals.”

Good sleep

The researchers quizzed full-time employees a couple of times a day for a fortnight, with each employee explaining how good the previous night’s sleep was and their current mood. They also divulged how they thought about their work, and particularly their intentions to pursue higher status, more responsibility, or greater influence at work.

There was very little difference in the overall quality of sleep between men and women, however, it did appear that women were more likely to have lower career ambitions if they had had a bad night’s sleep the night before.

While it’s not precisely clear why this might be, the researchers suspect it’s perhaps to do with the way women regulate emotions as well as the societal expectations of them. For instance, they highlight that neuroscience has found that women tend to be more reactive to emotions than men, which can be reinforced by cultural stereotypes of women as more emotional.

Similarly, stereotypes of men as generally being more ambitious create an expectation that they will want to climb the career ladder, even if they suffer from poor sleep.

Regardless of the reasons, the researchers believe their findings clearly demonstrate that if women want to have more positive career aspirations, then striving for better quality sleep could be a good way to do so.

“It’s important to be able to connect aspirations to something happening outside the work environment that is controllable,” the researchers conclude. “There are lots of things that anyone can do to have a better night’s sleep and regulate mood in general.”