Only Two-Thirds of US Adults Get Adequate Sleep Save

Optimal sleep duration for adults is suppose to be 7 or more hours of sleep each night. Shorter sleep duration (7 hours per night) is associated with greater likelihoods of obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, frequent mental distress, and death.  Insufficient sleep is associated with fibromyalgia, myofascial pain, amplified pain, spastic disorders (migraine, IBS) and impairs cognitive performance - which can leasd to accidents, medical errors, and loss of work productivity.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has analyzed the sleep habits of 444,306 US adults using the 2014 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) conducted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

On average, only two-thirds of US adults reported a healthy sleep duration; the age-adjusted prevalence of healthy sleep was lower among non-Hispanic blacks, American Indians/Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians/Pacific Islanders, and multiracial respondents, compared with non-Hispanic whites,

The lowest percentage of adequate sleep was 56.1% in Hawaii  and highest was 71.6% in South Dakota. Geographic clustering of the lowest prevalence of healthy sleep duration was observed in the southeastern United States and in states along the Appalachian Mountains, and the highest prevalence was observed in the Great Plains states.  Overall, 11.8% reported a sleep duration ≤5 hours, 23.0% reported 6 hours, 29.5% reported 7 hours, 27.7% reported 8 hours, 4.4% reported 9 hours, and 3.6% reported ≥10 hours. 

The determination that more than a third of U.S. adults report sleeping 7 hours and findings of geographic and sociodemographic variations in low prevalence of healthy sleep duration suggest opportunities for promoting sleep health. These opportunities include sleep health education, reducing racial/ethnic and economic disparities, changes in work shift policies, and routine medical assessment of patients’ sleep concerns in health care systems