Definitely not gender-restricted. I think every guy I’ve ever dated has poked/shaken/bothered me awake just to ask in a loud whisper “pssst hey are you sleeping??” and when I’d say yes, I was sleeping, they’d be like “okay you should probably keep sleeping” or something like that.

One guy would find that I wasn’t in bed anymore (he snored) and then come to the couch, poke me to ask if I was sleeping on the couch, and then ultimately climb into the couch with me to then snore some more!

Looking back it is very endearing, but I’ve never considered hurting someone I love as much as I did in those instances.