Methodology

2,000 surveys were fielded between April 10-18, 2019, among a representative sample of U.S. adults (age 18+), using a questionnaire lasting approximately 15 minutes. Sample size provides a confidence interval of ±2.19% at 95%. The sample was provided by Dynata, one of the largest online sample providers in the country.

Respondent Profile

Driver Analysis

To identify the factors that are key drivers of sleep quality, a driver – or importance – analysis was conducted using Shapley regression. Similar to multiple regression, the technique estimates which variables best predict sleep quality. The technique is preferred when identifying the impact of potential drivers because it removes the correlation between variables (multicollinearity), which can understate or overstate the importance of some factors.

Factors analyzed included sleep environment, behavior before bed and in the bedroom, personal finances, relationships, hobbies, work environment, and feelings about current affairs.

The following provides the top, most significant factors that impact quality of sleep.

Factors That Most Negatively Impact Sleep In America

1. Stress
2. Physical pain
3. Personal finances
4. Social isolation/loneliness

Stress

• By and large, stress is the leading driver of poor sleep quality. People who rated their sleep as poor are nearly 4 times more likely to have felt stress very often in the past two weeks prior to taking the survey compared to those who rated their sleep as excellent (they make up 27% of self-rated poor sleepers vs. 7% of self-rated excellent sleepers).

Physical Pain

Those who rated their sleep as poor:

• Are over 2 times more likely to have recently experienced pain when sitting or standing compared to those who rated their sleep as excellent (they make up 42% of self-rated poor sleepers vs. 18% of self-rated excellent sleepers)
• Are over 2.5 times more likely to have recently experienced pain when lying down compared to those who rated their sleep as excellent (they make up 32% of self-rated poor sleepers vs. 12% of self-rated excellent sleepers)

 Personal Finances

Those who rated their sleep as poor:

• Are 1.4 times more likely to live paycheck to paycheck compared to those who rated their sleep as excellent (they make up 60% of self-rated poor sleepers vs. 42% of self-rated excellent sleepers)
• Are 1.3 times more likely to be concerned about their own financial future compared to those who rated their sleep as excellent (they make up 75% of self-rated poor sleepers vs. 56% of self-rated excellent sleepers)

Isolation/Loneliness

• Those who frequently wake up feeling tired in the morning are over 2 times more likely to have difficulty being in social situations compared to those who rarely/never wake up feeling tired (they make up 42% of those who are frequently tired in the morning vs. 18% of those who rarely/never wake up feeling tired in the morning)
• Those who frequently wake up feeling tired in the morning are over 1.5 times more likely to want to go out, but don’t have anyone to go out with – compared to those who rarely/never wake up feeling tired (they make up 37% of those who are frequently tired in the morning vs. 22% of those who rarely/never wake up feeling tired in the morning)

 Factors That Most Positively Impact Sleep In America

1. Hours of sleep
2. Personal finances
3. Social life
4. Staying current with the news and enjoying it

 Hours of Sleep

• Those who rated their sleep as excellent are over 2 times more likely to get 7-8 hours of sleep per night compared to those who rated their sleep as poor (they make up 72% of self-rated excellent sleepers vs. 34% of self-rated poor sleepers)

Personal Finances

Those who rated their sleep as excellent:

• Are nearly 2 times more likely to regularly save for retirement and/or unforeseen medical expenses compared to those who rated their sleep as poor (they make up 55% and 50% of self-rated excellent sleepers vs. 32% and 26% of self-rated poor sleepers, respectively)
• Are over 1.5 times more likely to buy what they want when they want it compared to those who rated their sleep as poor (they make up 54% of self-rated excellent sleepers vs. 33% of self-rated poor sleepers)

Social Life

• People who rated their sleep as excellent are 1.2 times more likely to have deep, meaningful friendships with people outside of their family compared to those who rated their sleep as poor (they make up 61% of self-rated excellent sleepers vs. 52% of self-rated poor sleepers)

Staying Current with the News and Enjoying it

• People who rated their sleep as excellent are 1.2 times more likely to enjoy staying current with the news (watch/listen to/read the news daily) compared to those who rated their sleep as poor (they make up 59% of self-rated excellent sleepers vs. 49% of self-rated poor sleepers)

A Few differences between Men and Women

 Results pointed to differences between men and women. Stress and personal finances are affecting women’s sleep more than men’s.

Stress

• Women who rated their sleep as poor are over 1.5 times more likely to have felt stress very often in the past two weeks prior to taking the survey, compared to men who rated their sleep as poor. Among women who rated their sleep as poor, 33% had felt stress very often in the two weeks preceding the survey vs. 20% of men.

Personal Finances

• Women who rated their sleep as poor are 1.5 times more likely to indicate they completely agree that they live paycheck to paycheck, compared to men who rate their sleep as poor. Among women who rated their sleep as poor, 41% completely agree that they live paycheck to paycheck vs. 27% of men.

Survey Details: Better Sleep Council June 2019

Americans Are Conflicted About the Importance of Sleep

While most people understand that sleep is necessary to recharge, restore and refresh, they also harbor some resentment about how much time they actually spend asleep.

Kudos for sleep

When asked what sleep means to them, Americans said:

• It’s necessary to recharge/restore/refresh (62%)
• It’s my favorite part of the day (14%)
• It’s necessary but elusive (9%)
• It’s a personal indulgence (6%)
• I don’t think about it (5%)
• It’s a necessary evil (3%)
• It’s a waste of time and I’m missing out on things (2%)

How to meet the sandman

Americans were asked what strategies they use when they are having difficulty falling asleep, and they found these to be helpful:

• Watch TV (50%)
• Read a book/magazine (34%)
• Take a sleep medication (24%)
• Drink herbal tea/warm milk (20%)
• Take a bath (16%)
• There’s no hope (10%)
• Get a new mattress (6%)
• Get new bedding (6%)

Sleep stats bring people down

People were told that they will sleep for one-third of their lives, and when asked how it made them feel about sleep:

• 33% said they like or love sleep; they feel good/great/OK about sleep; or they feel grateful
• 24% said it’s needed or it’s needed to recharge your body; to stay or look younger or healthy; or to reset your mind
• 15% felt it is wasted time or a waste of their lives; too much time lost; a loss of one-third of your life; it makes them feel depressed, sad or bad; or they hate it
• 10% said they don’t get that much or enough sleep; or it makes them want more or better sleep
• 8% responded it made them feel sleep is important or more important; it made them want to make the most of it; or it made them feel that sleep was valuable or critical
• 8% felt indifferent about sleep; that it doesn’t matter; or there is nothing you can do about it
• 7% said they should sleep less; they wished they had more time; they wished they didn’t need so much sleep; that’s a lot of sleep or time spent sleeping; it’s very time-consuming; it seems like too much; or simply said “crazy” or “wow”

Sleep talking

Some of the comments people made about sleep in the survey include:

• “I love sleep – it and I are very good friends and I couldn’t think of a better way to spend one-third of my life than snuggled into my mattress”
• “I like sleep. I think it’s refreshing and a worthy cause. Even if I’m not asleep I prefer to be in bed and cozy anyway.”
• “It’s still necessary. Sleeping will help us to perform well at our job, help us to get good grades and help to make good decisions in our life. So, yes, we have to sleep one-third of our life to be able to live it fully.”
• “It’s important for mental and physical health and revitalizes our bodies overnight. It makes me a little sad we spend that much time, but I realize it’s necessary.”
• “Screw sleep! I have stuff to do!”
• “Sad. What a waste of valuable time.”
• “It’s disappointing that I will be spending such a large portion of my life asleep. It makes sleep seem even less appealing.”
• “I wish it were true – insomnia never lets me sleep.”
• “It reminds me of how important sleep is.”
• “Sleep must be very important because there is hardly anything else that you will even spend close to that amount of time on.”
• “It’s just how we function.”
• “It is needed so I’m indifferent.”
• “That’s a lot of sleep!”
• “I wish I could get less of it but still live a long, fulfilling, healthy life.”

Competing with Rip Van Winkle

Survey respondents were told that by the time they are 60 years old, they will have spent roughly 20 years of their lives asleep. They replied that this made them think:

• I need to make sleep more of a priority than I do right now (28%)
• I can’t believe I’m about to waste 20 years of my life (24%)
• I wish I could sleep for 12 hours a day (23%)
• It makes me want to never go to sleep again (9%)
• Other (16%)

Age impacts how Americans feel about sleep

Feelings about sleep change with each age and stage of life.

• Millennials (30%) are significantly more likely to feel they are wasting 20 years of their lives sleeping than Gen Xers (23%) or Boomers (21%)
• Millennial males (34%) are significantly more likely to feel they are wasting 20 years of their lives with sleep than both Gen X males (18%) and Boomer males (20%)
• Respondents with children (30%) were significantly more likely to feel sleep is a waste than those with none (19%)

Survey Details: Conducted in April 2015 with a statistically representative sample of U.S. adults (18+); a sample size of 1,000 yields a confidence interval of 95% +/- 3.1% . Age groups: Millennials (18-34), Gen X (35-54) and Baby Boomers (55+).