Sleep Deficit
One in 10 American Adults Not Getting Enough Sleep
Longer work hours, more commitments and fewer sleep hours mean that adults are chronically lacking sleep. Chronic exhaustion can affect professional and personal lives.
Morning comes too soon for many American adults. About one in 10 adults reported not getting enough sleep or rest in the last month, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“It’s important to better understand how sleep impacts people’s overall health and the need to take steps to improve the sufficiency of their sleep,” said Lela R. McKnight-Eily, Ph.D. McKnight-Eily was the CDC study’s lead author and is a behavioral scientist in the CDC’s Division of Adult and Community Health. The study examined the sleep habits of adults in Delaware, Hawaii, New York and Rhode Island.
The average adult needs seven to nine hours of sleep per night, according to the National Sleep Foundation, an organization dedicated to understanding sleep and sleep disorders and to supporting sleep education, research and advocacy. Children who are 5 to 12 years old need nine to 11 hours of sleep per night, and adolescents (ages 11 to 17) need about 8.5 to 9.5 hours per night.
However, many adults are falling short of that goal. The average working American adult sleeps about six hours and 55 minutes per night on work nights, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. Non-work nights are slightly better, with the average adult sleeping about 7.5 hours on those nights.
“Nearly 50 million Americans chronically suffer from sleep problems and disorders that affect their careers, their personal relationships and the safety on our roads,” said Darrel Drobnich, acting chief executive officer for the National Sleep Foundation. “Longer workdays and more access to colleagues and the workplace through the Internet and other technology appear to be causing Americans to get less sleep.”
There may be many causes for this chronic lack of sleep for adults, according a 2006 Institute of Medicine report. Among these reasons are longer work hours, shift work, irregular sleep schedules, heavy family demands, late-night television watching, Internet use and caffeine or alcohol consumption.
Chronic lack of sleep can be a professional detriment. Of the adults surveyed by the National Sleep Foundation, 29 percent said they fell asleep or were sleepy at work in the last month, and 12 percent were late to work in the past month because of sleepiness.
“The effects of sleep loss on work performance are costing U.S. employers tens of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity,” said Drobnich.
Driving safety is also at stake. Of the adults surveyed, 36 percent said they have been drowsy or fallen asleep while driving; about one in three of the adults said they drive while drowsy at least once or twice per month.
Even if they are not driving while drowsy, sleepy adults can suffer in their personal lives as well. One in five of the adults surveyed said they have sex less often or have lost interest in sex because of exhaustion. And 14 percent said they had missed family activities, work functions or leisure activities in the past month because they were tired.
Sleep loss has been linked to a variety of health problems, including obesity and depression, according to the CDC. It also is associated with some risk behaviors, including cigarette smoking, physical inactivity and heavy alcohol consumption.
"It's time for American workers and employers to make sleep a priority," said Drobnich.
