In Recognition of Sleep Awareness Week, Sleep Cycle Analyzed How Well Americans are Sleeping Across the Country
GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Feb. 20, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Sleep Cycle, the leading sleep tracking application and one of the most widely used solutions worldwide to improve sleep health, analyzed over 15 million hours of sleep across the United States in recognition of Sleep Awareness Week® to better understand if Americans are truly getting quality sleep. The analysis uncovered that Hawaii, Nevada and Maryland have the worst sleep quality in the country, while Montana, Colorado and Vermont are sleeping the best.
“Sleep is integral to our mental health. As this year’s Sleep Awareness Week focuses on sleep health and its connection to mental health, it’s a perfect time for Americans to take a step back and think about where sleep is ranked in their lives,” said Dr. Mike Gradisar, Ph.D. & Head of Sleep Science at Sleep Cycle. “Practicing healthy sleep habits, such as meditation around bedtime and maintaining consistent bedtimes and wake-up times will elevate your sleep, is especially important as you manage stressors in your day-to-day life.”
According to the Sleep Cycle analysis of Sleep Quality across the country, the top ten states with the worst sleep quality were spread out across the nation and included:
HawaiiNevadaMarylandFloridaTexas New JerseyAlabamaMississippiLouisianaGeorgia
The ten states with the best sleep quality were:
MontanaColoradoVermontOregonRhode IslandIowaNew HampshireIdahoMassachusettsMinnesota
To see the full list of states, visit http://tinyurl.com/4e4m7jmj.
So what could be impacting the sleep of Americans? Dr. Gradisar says that one cause could be worry and stress, which could interfere with the ability to fall asleep, as well as one’s sleep quality and duration. A 2023 report by the American Psychological Association found that among the day-to-day stress categories, health-related stressors (65%), money (63%), and the economy (64%) were reported among the top significant sources of stress in adults’ lives.
Interestingly, with the exception of Hawaii, Maryland and New Jersey, among the top 10 states for lowest sleep quality, they all share commonalities in these stress categories. They all rank low for access to healthcare as well as high poverty rates and low for economic opportunities. While Hawaii, Maryland and New Jersey are outliers, the states rank among the top for high cost of living, which can certainly impact stress.
While stress can impair sleep by prolonging how long it takes to fall asleep as well as fragmenting sleep, Dr. Gradisar recommends the following novel tips to reduce worry and improve sleep while dealing with day-to-day stressors.
Mindfulness body scan practice: in a 2018 study people were asked to listen to a 15-minute mindfulness body scan at bedtime – and to practice this for 2 weeks. It found that people who regularly took more than 30 minutes to fall asleep, fell asleep about 50% faster after 1 week of practicing this technique.
Watch TV to distract from worries: yes. About 30% of people fall asleep watching TV before bed. In fact, there’s practically no relationship between watching TV and sleep. But keep in mind that this should be a temporary solution.
Find something that helps distract and relax your mind: in the end, you need to find something that redirects you from those racing thoughts and worries. For example, you can try the Sleep Program called ‘Relax the Mind’ within the Sleep Cycle app. This notion of redirecting your mind to more pleasant thoughts is a technique called ‘Cognitive refocusing’, which has been shown to be effective after a couple of weeks of practice.
Sleep Cycle is a mobile app that has helped millions of people in the U.S. understand their sleep habits and improve their sleep. The app helps users fall asleep more easily, tracks and analyzes sleep during the night, wakes the user in a light sleep phase and provides insight into how sleep quality is best improved. Sleep Cycle measures sleep quality by the amount of time spent in bed, the amount of time spent in deep sleep, the frequency of motion and intensity for each movement and the amount of times when the Sleep Cycle application registered its user as “fully awake”. For more information and to download the application, visit https://www.sleepcycle.com/.
METHODOLOGY
For this report, Sleep Cycle ranked average sleep quality from highest to lowest using data from over 14M sleep sessions in the US during 2023. Sessions lasting between 4 and 12 hours were included. Sleep metrics were averaged for sessions that began in 2023 and segmented by region (state), city, or gender where applicable. Only breakdowns with more than 1000 unique users were included in the analysis.
DISCLAIMER
The contents of this press release is of general character and intended for informational purposes only. The information is not adapted after individual sleep quality or health status. It does not constitute and is not intended to constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and should never replace any advice given by a physician or other qualified healthcare provider.
ABOUT SLEEP CYCLE
With millions of daily active users and over two billion nights analyzed in more than 150 countries, Sleep Cycle is the leading sleep tracking application and one of the most widely used solutions worldwide to improve sleep health. Sleep Cycle’s mission is to improve global health by empowering people to sleep better. Since its launch in 2009, Sleep Cycle has helped millions of people understand their sleep habits and improve their sleep. The mobile application helps users fall asleep more easily, tracks and analyses sleep during the night, wakes the user in a light sleep phase and provides insight into how sleep quality is best improved. Sleep Cycle is one of the world’s most comprehensive sources for statistics on sleep and contributes to research and reporting on sleep worldwide. Sleep Cycle is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker SLEEP. The head office is located in Gothenburg, Sweden.
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SOURCE Sleep Cycle
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