Sleep Statistics from Sleepless in America

By Wayne Caswell, Intelligent Sleep and founder of Modern Health Talk

“Sleepless in America” is a powerful documentary on the National Geographic channel. I watched and captured some of its powerful statistics and blended them with my own. Afterwards is a related infographic.

Sleepless in America – Trailer

Sleepless in America – Full Version (1:28:15 min)

UPDATE: I can no longer find the full version of this important 2014 documentary online anywhere, including in film archives. I’m not sure why but think you may be able to find it on DVD in a public library.

Sleep Statistics

How much sleep do we Need?

• Every species studied to date (plant or animal) needs sleep.
• Human Infants need 16 hours/day
• Children ages 5-12 need 10-11 hours/night
• Teens need 8-10 hours
• Adults need 7-9 hours
• Seniors need 6-8 hours

How much sleep do we Get?

• 2 hours — Americans sleep this much less than we did 50 150 years ago.
• 40% of all adults sleep less than 7 hours. (Actually most sleep less than 7 hrs Mon-Fri.)
• >40% of night shift workers sleep less than 6 hours.
• 30% of all adult workers get less than 6 hours. (CDC, 2012)
• 70% of adolescents are sleep deprived.

Short Sleep is a KILLER

• 20% more likely to Die in 20 years
• 27% higher risk of Obesity
  • Hungrier: high-calorie, high-carb
  • Increased appetite for fatty foods 33%
  • 500 more calories/day consumed (like adding 1 cheese burger/day to your diet)
  • 30-40% reduced Glucose Metabolism
• 62% higher risk of Breast Cancer
• 48% higher risk of Heart Disease
• 5 times higher risk of Diabetes
  • >29M Americans have diabetes.
  • >79M more have pre-diabetes.
• 3 times higher risk of catching a Cold due to Impaired Immunity
• 4 times higher risk of Stroke
• 5 times higher risk of developing Depression
• Brain Tissue loss and failure to clear out amyloid plaques & toxins associated with Alzheimer’s

Drowsy Driving is a KILLER

• 20% of Car Accidents (>100,000/year)
• 1,500 Deaths
• 71,000 Injuries
• $12.5 billion Monetary Loss
• 32% reduced Alertness with 1.5 less sleep
• Like driving Drunk (<5 hours sleep as bad as 5% blood-alcohol)

Benefits of Good Sleep (messages for women)

• Look Better: We all need our Beauty Sleep
• Overall Appearance: less attractive, sad looking
• Weight: Lose 14.3 lbs/yr with 1 hour more sleep
• Health: Live longer & better
• School: Develop higher IQ, get better grades
• Family: Improved relationships & sex

Benefits of Good Sleep (messages for men)

• Improved: attention, creativity, decision-making, focus, mood, reaction & recovery times, working memory, and more
• Resulting in: more raises & promotions, earning capacity, net worth
• 11% quicker recovery from Exhaustion (better workouts)
• 17% improved Reaction Times off the block (swimming)
• 3% improved Reaction Times (basketball)
• 0.1 second faster 40-yard dash (football)
• 42% boost in Hitting Accuracy (tennis)
• 3x fewer lapses in attention (baseball)
• Naps among military pilots improved performance of 34% and alertness 100% (NASA)

Other Sleep Stats

• Corporate productivity: $63 billion/year lost from sleep deprivation (Harvard Health News, 2011)
• Disasters: Experts now believe sleep deprivation played a role in:
  • the Exxon Valdez oil spill,
  • Staten Island Ferry crash, and
  • Three Mile Island nuclear meltdown, among others.
  • among other disasters.
• Mood & Emotion: 60% more reactive
• Medical errors: increase dramatically with long hours.
• Students: later start times result in higher test scores, less depression, and 70% fewer car crashes.
• Only about 50% of people who try a CPAP machine for apnea continue to use it regularly.
• 60M sleep medications were prescribed by US physicians in 2011.

Related Infographic

Another Infographic from the same documentary.
(this one from Top-Nursing-Programs.com)