Survey: Stress keeps Americans up at night

You don’t need a poll to know that sleep, or rather the lack thereof, has become a big deal for Americans. According to IRI, Americans spent more than $439.6 million on nonprescription sleeping remedies for the 52 weeks ended April 19 in U.S. multi-outlets. Those sales were up 5.9% compared with the year-ago period.



That’s nothing to yawn at.



The fact is, Americans aren’t getting enough sleep from Sunday. On average, it’s taking more than an hour for adults to fall sleep after climbing into bed Sunday night, according to a Harris Poll commissioned by Procter & Gamble of more than 2,000 adults.



According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average adult employee is getting to bed five minutes before 11 p.m., and waking 7 hours and 43 minutes later. That might sound good, given that the NSF recommends people get between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night. However, more than one-third of Americans report their sleep quality as “poor” or only “fair.” And 1-in-4 women report not feeling well-rested at all in the previous four days, compared with 16% of men, NSF reported.



So, what’s keeping them up at nights? Stress. That’s what 68% of respondents pointed to as the reason they’re not getting enough sleep. And 29% reported that not getting enough sleep on Sunday impacted their performance throughout the week.