How Did You Sleep Last Night?

It's a toss-up, according to The State of Sleep in America 2022 Report. One-third of American adults (32 percent) reported "very good/excellent" sleep last night, another third (35 percent) reported "good" sleep, and the final third (33 percent) say their sleep was only "fair/poor." The State of Sleep in America is the product of a partnership between Gallup and Casper, the sleep products company, with the goal of measuring and better understanding sleep quality. So here's how last night went...

"Overall, how would you describe your sleep last night?"

Excellent: 7%

Very good: 25%

Good: 35%

Fair: 23%

Poor: 10%

The 54 percent majority of adults reported some kind of trouble sleeping last night, according to the survey. The largest share (28 percent) had trouble staying asleep. Another 15 percent had trouble falling asleep, and an unlucky 11 percent had trouble both falling and staying asleep. 

Perhaps it's not surprising but those who worry the most about sleep are also the ones who have the hardest time sleeping. Among the 9 percent of adults who worry "a lot" about falling asleep, just 6 percent say their sleep over the past 30 days has been very good/excellent. The 69 percent majority of worriers say their sleep has been only fair/poor. Conversely, among the 40 percent of Americans who say they do not worry at all about falling asleep, a substantial 43 percent report very good/excellent sleep over the past 30 days. Just 20 percent say their sleep has been been only fair/poor.

Source: Gallup, Casper-Gallup State of Sleep in America 2022 Report

Struggling to Sleep, Many Take Medications

Millions of Americans frequently take a medication to help them fall or stay asleep, according to the National Health Interview Survey. Overall, 8.2 percent of adults aged 18 or older took a sleep medication four or more times in the past week. Women are more likely than men to use sleep medications frequently—9.7 percent of women versus 6.6 percent of men. Frequent use of sleep medications rises with age...

Percent of women who took a sleep medication 4 or more times in past week
Aged 18 to 44: 5.8%
Aged 45 to 64: 12.7%
Aged 65-plus: 13.2%

Source: CDC, Percentage of Adults Aged ≥ 18 Who Took Medication to Help Them Fall or Stay Asleep Four or More Times in the Past Week, by Sex and Age Group—National Health Interview Survey, United States, 2017–2018

Napping Increases with Age

A substantial 41 percent of adults are nappers, according to an AARP survey, which defines nappers as those who take naps at least once a week. Napping rises with age...

Percent who nap at least once a week
Under age 45: 32%
Aged 45 to 54: 37%
Aged 55 to 64: 42%
Aged 65 to 74: 47%
Aged 75-plus: 59%

Among people aged 40 or older, 10 percent nap daily and 42 percent nap at least once a week. Only 22 percent never take naps. The average nap lasts 28 minutes.

Source: AARP, 2016 AARP Sleep and Brain Health Survey

Many High School Students Get Little Sleep

More than two thirds (69 percent) of high school students get less than 7 hours of sleep on an average school night, reports the CDC, which considers less than 7 hours insufficient. Here is the percentage by grade...

Percent who get less than 7 hours of sleep on average school night
9th graders: 60%
10th graders: 67%
11th graders: 73%
12th graders: 77%

Source: CDC, Sleep Duration and Injury-Related Risk Behaviors Among High School Students—United States, 2007-2013

Who Gets Enough Sleep?

Percentage of Americans who report getting an average of 7 or more hours of sleep in a 24-hour period, according to the CDC's Behavorial Risk Factor Surveillance System...

Age
18 to 24: 67.8%
25 to 34: 62.1%
35 to 44: 61.7%
45 to 64: 62.7%
65-plus: 73.7%

Race and Hispanic origin
Asians: 62.5%
Blacks: 54.2%
Hispanics: 65.5%
Non-Hispanic Whites: 66.8%

Education
Less than college: 62.4%
College graduate: 71.5%

Marital Status
Never married: 62.3%
Married: 67.4%
Separated, divorced, widowed: 55.7%

Source: CDC, Prevalence of Healthy Sleep Duration among Adults—United States, 2014

Sleep Aids

Many Americans depend on prescription drugs to help them sleep. According to a report by the National Center for Health Statistics, 4 percent of adults aged 20 or older used a prescription sleep aid in the past 30 days. Use of sleep aids rises fairly steadily with age, from a low of 1.8 percent among 20-to-39-year-olds to a high of 7 percent among people aged 80 or older.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, Prescription Sleep Aid Use among Adults: United States, 2005-2010

Who's Not Healthy?

Your health in six dimensions: drinking, smoking, aerobic activity, muscle strengthening activity, weight, and sleep. This is what the government measures and analyzes to determine how many adults practice healthy behavior in each dimension. Here is the percentage of Americans aged 18 or older who failed to meet each of the healthy behavior guidelines...

1. Drinks too much: 23% Defined as five or more drinks in one day in the past year.
2. Smokes: 20% Defined as current cigarette smokers.
3. No aerobic activity: 34% Defined as never engaging in leisure-time aerobic activity.
4. No muscle-strengthening activity: 74% Defined as never engaging in leisure-time muscle-strengthening activity.
5. Obese: 28% Defined as a body mass index of 30 or more.
6. Sleep deprived: 30% Defined as less than 7 hours of sleep (8 hours for 18-to-21-year-olds) per 24 hours, on average.

Source: National Center for Health Statistics, National Health Interview Survey, Health Behaviors of Adults: United States, 2008-2010

Falling Asleep while Driving

This is scary. According to a study by the CDC, there are a lot of drowsy drivers on the road--and admittedly so. Fully 4.2% of Americans aged 18 or older say they have fallen asleep while driving in the past 30 days. By state, drivers in Texas are most likely to fall asleep at the wheel, with 6.1 percent doing so in the past month.

Source: CDC, Drowsy Driving--19 States and the District of Columbia, 2009-2010

Notable Changes in Time Use

If you compare the results of the 2011 American Time Use Survey with those from 2007, before the Great Recession, you can glean the many ways in which life has changed...

• Fewer men at work: Only 50 percent of men aged 15 or older worked on an average day in 2011, down from 54 percent in 2007.
• More sleep: With more people out of work, average sleep time increased from 8.57 to 8.71 hours per night.
• More home cooking: The percentage of people who participated in food preparation and cleanup on an average day grew from 51 to 53 percent.
• More schooling: The percentage of people aged 15 or older who attended classes or did homework on an average day climbed from 7.9 to 8.4 percent.
• Fewer watching TV: The percentage of people who watch TV on an average day fell by more than 1 percentage point between 2007 and 2011--from 79.5 to 78.3 percent. Among those who watched TV on an average day, however, viewing time grew from 3.30 to 3.51 hours.
• Fewer caring for kids: As births fell from their 2007 peak, the share who care for household children on an average day fell by a full percentage point--from 21.8 to 20.8 percent.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey

Demographics of the Sleep Deprived

Thirty percent of American workers regularly sleep for 6 or fewer hours per 24-hour period, according to the CDC. The percentage is highest among night shift workers (44 percent), workers aged 30 to 64 (32 percent), blacks (39 percent), the divorced/separated/widowed (36 percent), those with more than one job (37 percent), and those who work more than 40 hours a week (36 percent).

Source: CDC, Short Sleep Duration among Workers -- United States, 2010

Who Has Trouble Sleeping? Gen Xers

Not surprisingly, the generation hardest hit by the Great Recession is having the most trouble getting a good night's sleep. The 61 percent majority of Gen Xers often (24 percent) or sometimes (36 percent) has a problem falling or staying asleep. In contrast, people aged 65 or older are least likely to have trouble sleeping. Only 11 percent often have trouble, and the 58 percent majority rarely or never has a problem with sleep.

Source: General Social Survey

The Truth about Housework

Do people lie about how much time they spend doing housework? Apparently, yes. When researchers ask how many hours per week people spend doing housework, men and women report devoting many more hours to cooking, cleaning, and other chores than time use diaries measure.

Men report doing 23 hours of housework a week. Time use diaries show they actually perform only 10 hours of housework a week. Women say they spend 32 hours a week doing housework, while time use diaries show it is only 17 hours.

The mismatch between recalled time and actual time also occurs when estimating hours of paid work, although the gap is smaller. Employed men estimate that they worked 43 hours last week, while time use diaries show they worked 41 hours. Employed women estimate they worked 36 hours, when in fact they worked 32 hours.

What accounts for these differences? According to time use researchers, one factor may be social desirability. "Respondents may believe that low estimates of time spent on paid work or housework estimates could be taken as a sign of being lazy or irresponsible."

Socially desirable activities tend to be overestimated, such as time spent attending religious services or volunteering. Socially undesirable activities tend to be underestimated, such as sleep time and free time. People say they have only 20 hours of free time each week, but time use diaries show that their free time is in fact a much larger 35 hours.

Source: "The overestimated workweek revisited," by John P. Robinson, Steven Martin, Ignace Glorieux, and Joeri Minnen, Monthly Labor Review, June 2011

Asleep and Awake

At 3:00 a.m. the largest percentage of people are asleep: 94.7%.
At 6:00 p.m. the smallest percentage of people are asleep: 2.6%.

Source: American Time Use Survey

Ding Dong, The Witch Is Dead

Typically, older Americans are the ones most informed about the news. Yesterday's killing of Osama Bin Laden may have been the first Big News event in which the youngest generation was the first to know and spread the news to their peers in a whoosh of texting, Twittering, and Facebook posts.

On the East Coast, many older Americans were asleep when the news that Osama Bin Laden was dead burst onto millions of cellphones. It is likely that many did not hear the news until hours later when they collected their morning paper. There is no doubt that the audience for President Obama's late night remarks was decidedly youthful, as were the crowds that formed spontaneously in Washington, D.C. and New York.

Everyone under the age of, say, 25 has another reason besides their late night schedules and texting prowess to follow the news about Osama Bin Laden's killing so closely. Older generations have seen enemies come and go--Germans, Japanese, North Vietnamese, communists, Richard Nixon. For the younger generation, Osama Bin Laden was The Enemy. Now he's dead. This is their V-Day.

An Average Day: Sleeping

On an average day, amount of time people aged 15 or older spend sleeping...

Weekdays: 8.40 hours
Weekends: 9.34 hours

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, American Time Use Survey

Peak Time of Day

The American Time Use Survey continues to amaze as it lays bare the details of our daily lives. Here are calculations based on time use data collected from 2003 through 2007. Shown below are the times at which the largest percentage of Americans aged 15 or older participate in the following primary (main) activities on an average day:

sleeping, 3 am, 94 percent
working, 11 am, 31 percent
eating and drinking, noon, 18 percent
shopping, 2 pm, 4 percent
food preparation and cleanup, 6 pm, 8 percent
socializing and communicating, 7 pm, 7 percent
watching television, 9 pm, 34 percent

Source: American Time Use Survey

Comparing Crime

Recently, the FBI released preliminary numbers from its 2005 Uniform Crime Reporting Program. According to the findings, violent crime in the U.S. rose 2.5 percent between 2004 and 2005. The complete report will be released later this year, entitled Crime in the United States, with tables of data on crimes reported to nearly 17,000 law enforcement agencies across the nation. But don't plan on using the report to determine how your local area ranks in the crime statistics. Those who want to compare one area with another are on their own.

The FBI makes no secret of the fact that they do not want users to compare crime rates. They even write extensively about the difficulty of doing so on their web site:

"Each year when Crime in the United States is published, many entities—news media, tourism agencies, and other groups with an interest in crime in our Nation—use reported figures to compile rankings of cities and counties. These rankings, however, are merely a quick choice made by the data user; they provide no insight into the many variables that mold the crime in a particular town, city, county, state, or region. Consequently, these rankings lead to simplistic and/or incomplete analyses that often create misleading perceptions adversely affecting cities and counties, along with their residents"

But you have to wonder whether this high-mindedness is more political than methodological. After all, if the FBI provided rankings of states and local areas by crime rate, then those 17,000 law enforcement agencies might not be so cooperative about sending their data to the FBI. And more than 400 congressional representatives, 100 senators, and countless local politicians would be very unhappy if their area appeared at the top of a high-crime list.

Unless an intrepid reporter burrows into the numbers by downloading, multiplying, dividing, and sorting, the average American is left pretty much in the dark about relative crime rates in the U.S. Everyone knows the central cities of metropolitan areas have high crime rates, but what about college towns, vacation spots, and retirement areas? The federal government makes it hard to find out.

Recently, crime seems to have surged in my town, Beaufort, South Carolina—a military base and resort area on the coast. Letters in the local newspaper have expressed shock at the crime, wondering what is happening to our once safe community. But how safe is Beaufort, relatively speaking? I wanted to find out. Because the 2005 data are not yet available, I went to the FBI's 2004 report, finding a table listing crime rates by region and state. I was not surprised to see the South having the highest rate of violent crime—this is a well documented fact. By region, the violent crime rate per 100,000 population looks like this:

U.S. average 465.5
South 540.6
West 480.7
Midwest 391.1
Northeast 390.7

Next, I spent about 15 minutes sorting the 50 states by their violent crime rate. To my surprise, supposedly sleepy South Carolina came out on top, with 784.2 violent crimes per 100,000 population in 2004. The violent crime rate in South Carolina exceeds the rate in every other state, including those with high-crime reputations such as Florida (711.3), Nevada (615.9), Texas (540.5), and New York (441.6).

But what about Beaufort? Another table has the data, listing each city's population and the number of violent crimes reported in 2004. The rate has to be calculated, then the list sorted. Lo and behold, Beaufort's violent crime rate of 1,660.3 places it 7th out of 33 cities in the state with populations of 10,000 or more. Beaufort, in fact, has a higher crime rate than the central cities of the state's largest metropolitan areas—Columbia and Charleston. Beaufort has a lower crime rate, however, than the state's other resort area, Myrtle Beach.

While it is understandable that local businesses and politicians may not want these facts to be released, keeping residents in the dark about their chances of experiencing violent crime is a disservice to the community. That kind of naiveté not only increases risk taking, but also adds more victims to the crime rolls.

How Many Are Sleepless?

The pharmaceutical industry wants to know. And the American Time Use Survey has the answer. On an average night, 3.7 percent of Americans aged 15 or older experience sleeplessness. That's 8.5 million people tossing and turning each night. Do the multiplication and you get something like 3 billion nights of sleeplessness each year in the United States, according to unpublished data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey.

The average American gets 8.6 hours of sleep a night (including time spent tossing and turning), with teenagers getting the most (9.5 hours) and 45-to-54-year-olds the least (8.2 hours). Who is most likely to be sleepless? Women aged 65 and older.