If you’re reading this and you’re feeling yawning, sleepy, tired, and wish you had a little more shut-eye, you’re not alone. A majority of Americans say they would feel better if they got more sleep, according to a new poll.
But in the United States, the ethos of improving and elevating yourself through your own efforts has been omnipresent, both from the country’s beginnings and in our current environment of always-on technology and working hours. Getting enough sleep may seem like a dream.
A Gallup poll released Monday found that 57% of Americans say they would feel better if they got more sleep, while 42% say they get as much sleep as they need. Not too much. This is the first time a Gallup poll has done so since 2001. The last time we asked Americans in 2013, it was almost the opposite: 56% said they were getting the sleep they needed, and 43% said they weren’t getting enough sleep.
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Young women under 50 were especially likely to report not getting enough rest.
The survey asked respondents to report how many hours of sleep they usually get per night. Only 26% said they got more than eight hours of sleep, which is close to what sleep experts recommend for good health and mental well-being. Just over half of her 53% reported that she got 6 to 7 hours of work. Additionally, 20% of people said they slept less than five hours, a significant increase from 14% who said they slept the least amount of time in 2013.
(And to make things even more exhausting, in 1942, the majority of Americans were getting more sleep: 59% said they slept more than 8 hours, and 33% said they slept 6 to 7 hours. What is that?)
A woman and her dog take a nap during a rain shower at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh on May 4, 2021. According to a Gallup poll released on April 15, 2024, a majority of Americans say they would feel better if they got more sleep. (Pam Panczak/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, via AP, File)
The reason is not exactly clear
The poll didn’t delve into why Americans aren’t getting the sleep they need, since the last time Gallup asked this question in 2013. There is no detailed analysis of the data.
But it’s worth noting that over the past decade more Americans have tended to believe they would benefit from getting more sleep, with a particularly sharp increase in the number of people who say they get five hours or less of sleep. That’s true, says Sarah Fioroni, a senior researcher at Gallup.
“The five-hour or less category…was almost unheard of in 1942,” Fioroni said. “Very few people reported sleeping less than 5 hours.”
Modern American life is rife with the idea that sleep is unnecessary, and that these periods of inactivity, when little is actually happening, are hours that could be put to better use. There is a widespread belief that Vice President for Research and Science at the National Sleep Foundation.
He says the importance of sleep for physical, mental and emotional health has only become more prevalent among the general public relatively recently.
And we still have a long way to go. For some Americans, like Justin Broal, 31, a self-employed event planner with two young children, there just aren’t enough hours in the day. So while she recognizes the importance of sleep, it often trumps other priorities, such as her 4-month-old son or her 3-year-old daughter, who still wake up during the night.
“I really value being able to spend time with (my kids),” Broal said. “Part of the benefit of being self-employed is that you have a more flexible schedule, but it definitely often comes at the expense of taking care of yourself.”
All of this also has a cultural background
So why are we always awake? A possible cause of Americans’ insomnia lies in a culture that has long emphasized hard work and productivity.
Some contexts are much older than the changes documented in polls. That includes Protestants from the European countries that colonized the country, said Claude Fisher, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, graduate school. Their belief system included the idea that working hard and receiving the reward of success was evidence of God’s favor.
“It’s been a core part of American culture for centuries,” he says. “One could argue that it has…become, in a secularized form over the centuries, just a general principle that a morally upright person is one who doesn’t waste time.”
Jennifer Sherman has seen it in action. The Washington State University sociology professor said that in his years of research in rural America, a common theme among those he interviewed was the importance of having a strong work ethic. That applies not only to paid work, but also to unpaid work, such as making sure the house is clean.
A constant in American cultural mythology is the idea that “individuals are responsible for creating their own destiny,” she said. “It suggests that if you waste too much time, you are responsible for your failures.”
“On the other side of the coin, there’s a ton of contempt for people who are seen as lazy,” she added.
As a parent, Broal said she thinks her generation can let go of some of those expectations. “I prioritize spending time with my kids over keeping the house clean,” she said.
But with two small children to take care of, she said settling for a messy house won’t give her more down time. “We have family time until[our 3-year-old]goes to bed.” We reset the house at 8 o’clock, right? ”
More sleep trade-off
While polls only show major changes over the past decade, living through the COVID-19 pandemic may be having an impact on people’s sleep patterns. Also, in post-COVID-19 life, people are finding ways to cope with stress by postponing sleep to scroll through social media or binge-watch shows. ‘ is also discussed.
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Liz Mechel knows that all too well. The 30-year-old American is temporarily living in Bulgaria on a research grant, but also works part-time during U.S. hours to make ends meet.
On nights when her work schedule stretches until 10 p.m., Mechelle finds herself stuck in a cycle of “postponing revenge.” She wants some time to herself to decompress before bed, but she ends up sacrificing her sleep time for that.
“That applies to bedtime, too. So I said, ‘Well, I didn’t have time for myself during the day, and it’s already 10 p.m., so I’ll feel perfectly fine and justified if I watch X number of movies. Watching TV episodes and spending a lot of time on Instagram are my ways of de-stressing,” she said. “That’s obviously always going to make the problem worse.”
