The researchers also observed that the percentage of respondents in short sleep duration categories decreased significantly, and the percentage of respondents in long sleep duration categories increased significantly across survey years. One of the “most pronounced changes” occurred in the size of the group of patients receiving 6-7 hours of sleep. This group decreased by 0.23% per year. The biggest change was seen in the category of patients receiving 9-10 hours of sleep, which increased by 0.24% per year.
“[The] change in sleep duration across survey years on weekdays can mostly be explained by respondents going to bed earlier at night and, to a lesser degree, by getting up later in the morning,” the researchers said. “On weekends/holidays, ‘time to bed’ shifted significantly to earlier bed times by 1.1 min/year across survey years, which was comparable to the shift observed on weekdays.”
Study participants aged 18-24 slept the most, with hours slept having “decreased with increasing age.” On weekdays, adults aged 45-54 years slept the least, and on weekends, adults aged 55-64 years got the least shuteye. Hispanic, Asian, and black respondents slept more than white and “other race/ethnicity” survey participants. The researchers also found that women overall got more sleep than men.
Dr. Basner and Dr. Dinges expressed optimism about Americans’ ongoing battle against chronic sleep deficiency. “These findings presented here suggest that we are on the right track ... even if there is still a long way to go,” they said.
The authors reported no conflicts of interest.