One in five people in the Netherlands have trouble sleeping and women are more likely to have problems than men, according to research by national statistics agency CBS to coincide with World Sleep Day.

People on low incomes are also more likely to sleep badly, as are older people. And four in 10 say their sleeping problems means they work less efficiently and have bad moods.

While just 8% of 12 to 16-year-olds complain about not sleeping well, that rises to 28% among the over-75s.

Older women are the least likely to sleep well. Almost one third of women aged 55 to 65 report sleep problems, compared with one in five men of the same age.

Medication

Research by Erasmus University last year said older women are more than twice as likely as men to take medication to help them sleep.

Women are more likely to have trouble falling asleep than men, they wake up more often and use more drugs. For example, 17.% of women over the age of 65 take medicine to help them sleep, compared with 6.1% of men.

Although 90% of the Dutch do sleep enough ‘that does not mean we all sleep well,’ Eus van Someren of the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience told broadcaster NOS last year. ‘We have trouble falling asleep, use drugs and have difficulty waking up. We really have to tackle this.’