Americans Are More Sleep Deprived Than Ever, and It’s Affecting Everything
Were exhausted. Collectively, chronically, dangerously exhausted. New data on American sleep habits confirms what many of us already know from personal experience: were not sleeping enough, and its affecting our health, our work, our relationships, and our ability to function as human beings.
CDC data shows more than a third of Americans dont get the recommended seven hours of sleep per night. And thats just the quantity – sleep quality is declining too. Were going to bed later, waking more frequently, and spending more time in bed without actually sleeping.
The health consequences are serious and well-documented. Chronic sleep deprivation is linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, obesity, depression, and cognitive decline. Your immune system functions worse when youre tired. Your reaction times slow. Your judgment suffers. Sleep-deprived driving is comparable to drunk driving in terms of impairment.
Why arent we sleeping? The answers are everywhere you look. The Sleep Foundation documents the many factors contributing to sleep deprivation. Screens emitting blue light before bed. Work emails that follow us home. Financial stress keeping us awake. Social media designed to be addictive. Irregular schedules from shift work or gig economy jobs. The list goes on.
As someone who has worked night shifts in healthcare, I can tell you that our society is not designed for adequate sleep. We valorize hustle culture and “grinding” while treating sleep as optional. We admire CEOs who claim to function on four hours a night while ignoring the research showing thats almost certainly not true. The work-life balance crisis extends to our most basic biological needs.
What can individuals do? The standard advice applies: consistent sleep schedule, dark cool room, no screens before bed, limit caffeine, exercise but not too late. These are all good suggestions. But individual behavior change only goes so far when the structural forces pushing against sleep are so powerful.
We need to start treating sleep as the public health issue it is. Because a nation of exhausted, impaired people is not functioning at its best – in any sense of the word.
