As you rush about your morning routine or struggle to meet work deadlines, you might feel more frazzled if you have a cool-as-a-cucumber male partner or male co-workers to compare yourself to. While some people are undoubtedly just better at hiding stress, the gender stress gap is real, with new research from health-tracking company Oura finding that women really are more stressed than men.

Oura took a deep dive into the data of more than 45,000 of its users from across the globe between March 2023 and March 2024 and found, on average, that women are stressed for 25 minutes more than men each day.

While men spend about 84 minutes a day feeling stressed out, women are clocking in around 109 minutes. These findings support previous studies that have already told us that women seem to have higher stress levels than men – something that can take its toll on our overall health. Women are more likely than men to suffer from stress disorders, which can cause inflammation and lead to health problems including heart disease and skin conditions such as psoriasis. It can also impact our digestive, reproductive and immune systems.

Women feel stressed for 25 minutes more than men every day, according to new data – here’s why that matters