A new Gallup poll found that 57% of Americans would feel better if they could get more sleep, while only 42% said they got as much sleep as they need. This is the first time this has happened in a Gallup poll since 2001.
Younger women, under 50, were the most likely to say they don't get enough rest. In 1942, the vast majority of Americans were sleeping more, with 59% saying they slept eight or more hours, while 33% slept between six and seven hours. In modern American life, there has also been “this widespread belief that sleep was unnecessary, that it was a period of inactivity in which little or nothing happened,” said Joseph Dzierzewski, vice president of research and scientific affairs of the National Sleep Foundation. The survey doesn't delve into the reasons Americans aren't getting the sleep they need, and since Gallup last asked the question in 2013, there's no data breaking down the particular impact of the past four years and the pandemic era.