Narrator: This is Science Today. American women are not getting enough sleep according to a survey sponsored by the National Sleep Foundation. Study leader Kathryn Lee of the School of Nursing at the University of California , San Francisco says this was not surprising.

Lee: I've been studying women for over twenty years in various phases of their life, so it wasn't surprising to me. I think what was surprising was that almost half had a sleep problem every night and those included things like snoring and breathing problems as well as restless legs and insomnia, difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep.

Narrator: Lee says one thousand women of all different ages and races were polled. Sixty percent reported getting fewer than one or two nights of good sleep each week.

Lee: Psychologically, we found that not only is sleep deprivation causing more mental health problems in itself with things like depression, but that women who are depressed are more likely to have poor sleep. In that sense, we're not sure which comes first.

Narrator: For Science Today, I'm Larissa Branin.