Study: Stress Keeps One In Three Americans Up At Night

Sleep is very important, but it turns out lots of Americans are losing it due to economic and political stress. University of Southern California Los Angeles researchers found that in 2013, 30 percent of Americans polled said they slept six hours or less at night, but the number rose to 33 percent in 2017. Lead study author Jennifer Ailshire explains, “If you talk to people, the things you hear most often are economic insecurity and economic anxiety. People are staying up worrying about things. There is also a growing stress level connected to our increasingly connected world.” Dr. James Rowley is division chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at Harper University Hospital in Detroit, and adds, “Physicians and other health professionals need to be aware of these findings and ask their patients how much sleep they are getting, and then counsel them how to get more sleep.”