Well at least there is *some* sucking going on. . .

That is... the stupidest article I've ever read.

"Girls have those weird hormone things, so they're OK with disturbed sleep. They're just naturally used to overcoming their own inherent stupidity, which means they function suprisingly well, even if they're too stupid to even realize they missed sleep. Us important menfolk, on the other hand, we need more alone time cuz we're all special and stuff. Stupid girls."

Also, I realize it's standard British English usage, but including "the" in "the menopause" always makes me giggle.

hrrmmmm.

Where in the article did it say that women were stupid?

Oh, I don't know. I think it was the tone of the dude at the end that made me roll my eyes.

But women apparently managed to sleep more deeply when they did eventually drop off, since they claimed to be more refreshed than their sleep time suggested...

He said there was a suggestion that women are pre-programmed to cope better with broken sleep.

"A lot of life events that women have disturb sleep - bringing up children, the menopause and even the menstrual cycle," he explained.

As if raising children never affects men, or other things in men's life might not regularly affect their sleep.

Given the general idiocy that most researchers show when ascribing differences to gender, and the even larger idiocy that most news sources show when reporting these things, I just feel like the whole thing's a bit silly. Any time I see someone saying, "Well, women have children, so the difference is obviously due to hormones and/or evolutionary psychology," I get itchy.

Also, they studied eight couple for 20 days, at a superficial enough level that the researcher can't even confirm that the women did, in fact, sleep deeper (as oppose to just function better on less sleep).

I'm coming across as rantier than I mean to, honestly. I thought the article was kinda funny, but I'm starting to just dismiss out of hand anything that's so "OMG boyz and girlz is totally different!" that doesn't at least pretend to address socialization reasons for those differences. Saying that childless women sleep more deeply due to the fact that women raise children is... odd.

"What's this?"
"Brainsucker"
"What's it doing?"
"Starving!"

(actually, imagine if a chick could actually suck on your brain. If she sucked at the pleasure center, I imagine it would be quite nice.)

Ha! I get the mister with that one all the time, jon!

"What's this?"
"Brainsucker"
"What's it doing?"
"Starving!"

HA! Haven't heard that in a long time.

"What's this?"
"Five of these!"

"What's this?"
"A dead this!"

(anyone? *crickets crickets*)

Mmm, braiiins!