The average American has over a HUNDRED bad nights of sleep every year… so how often do YOU get a perfect night’s sleep?
- The average American sleeps poorly for almost a third of the year
- Researchers said this could be because American adults go to bed stressed
- READ MORE: Going to bed an hour later is enough to make you feel miserable
Sleeping one in three nights is ‘bad’ for the average American, a study shows.
Researchers at OnePoll surveyed 200 American adults about how often they got a “perfect,” “good” or “bad” night’s sleep.
They found that the average American adult only gets 132 nights of “perfect” sleep per night, which amounts to just 36 percent of the year.
Additionally, participants said they averaged only 120 “good” nights of rest per year.
The remaining 113 nights of rest – 30 percent – included “poor” quality sleep, the researchers found.
A study by researchers at OnePoll found that the average American spends 113 nights of poor sleep every year
Cornbread Hemp CEO Eric Zipperle, who commissioned the study, suggested this could be because “Americans wake up stressed.
The researchers also noted that this stress kept the participants awake for an additional three hours after their scheduled bedtime.
In fact, 65 percent of those surveyed said a bad night’s sleep is enough to ruin the next day.
The poll also looked at what participants did while trying to fall asleep.
About 59 percent looked at their phones and 49 percent said they grabbed snacks.
And 39 percent said they just stared at the ceiling while waiting to close their eyes.
Nearly three in five (58 percent) of participants said they were stressed about their physical health, and 56 percent said they were worried about tasks they had to complete the next day.
Mental health problems accounted for 51 percent of stressors.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all Americans get seven to nine hours of sleep every night.
Children aged six to 12 need nine to 12 hours per night, while teenagers need eight to 10 hours.
CDC data has shown that one in three American adults gets less than seven hours of sleep per night.
Men are generally more likely than women to not get enough sleep, with 33.3 percent reporting less than seven hours of sleep per night, compared to 32.1 percent of women.
A lack of sleep has been consistently linked to chronic health problems such as heart and kidney disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, obesity and depression.
Additionally, the CDC says 8.4 percent of American adults take pills to fall asleep, more than double the amount they took a decade earlier.
These can rob the body of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep.
Too little REM sleep can lead to forgetfulness and make it harder to get up in the morning.