Sleep deprivation is linked to a number of health problems, but some of those problems may reduce in the United States because it turns out the average amount of sleep is going up in the country. A recent study found that on an average, Americans are sleeping 17.3 minutes more each night, compared to 14 years ago.
Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania analyzed data from 181,335 participants, all aged 15 years or older, who responded to the American Time Use Survey between 2003 and 2016. The survey is conducted by the United States Census Bureau. During that time, the survey’s participants clocked an extra 7.5 hours of sleep each year.
Detailed analysis of the survey data showed researchers that average daily sleep duration went up by 1.4 minutes on weekdays, while it increased by 0.8 minutes during weekends, each year. Small as that may seem, it adds up to 17.3 minutes of additional sleep over the 14-year duration, or to put it another way, Americans on average are sleeping 4.4 full days more every year now than they were in 2003.
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