Americans May Be Getting Enough Sleep After All, Report Says

Friday night slumber grew to 8.9 hours from 8.5, and workweek sleep grew to 8.2 hours from 7.8.

Sociologists at the University of Toronto recently published a report of similar trends in Canada.

Addressing the contrast with the National Sleep Foundation data, Robinson said he is not surprised that people who are asked to simply estimate how much sleep they get tend to underestimate.

"It's a status symbol," he said. "If you are a good American, you work all hours. It's virtuous in American society to not get enough sleep."

The Sleep Foundation gets funding from the makers of sleep-related drugs and medical devices but says its surveys are conducted independently.

Christopher Drake, a psychologist at Henry Ford Hospital's sleep center in Detroit and a board member of the Sleep Foundation, agreed that sleep estimates are not ideal. However, he added, "Time-use surveys have issues, too. Tossing and turning from insomnia and the time spent 'waking up' or 'falling asleep' is often counted as 'sleep time' in those surveys."

That can lead to overestimates of time spent sleeping, Drake said, adding that part of the difference may also be because the foundation's survey focused on working Americans.

Robinson and Drake agreed that averages do not tell the whole story, and that some parts of society may be getting less sleep these days even as others -- the undereducated and unemployed among them -- may be getting more.

"The message we're trying to get across is not that everyone is sleep-deprived, but there are certain segments of the population living with a regular sleep debt, people getting less than six hours per night," Drake said.

That includes the one-third of night shift workers who report getting less than six hours of sleep per 24 hours, and the 43 percent of people holding down two jobs who say they get a good night's sleep, on average, only twice a month.

That is important, Drake said, and not only because sleepiness can lead to automobile accidents and other life-threatening errors. "Sleepiness is impairing their work, their relationships with their families and pretty much every aspect of their lives," he said.

One solution: naps. Less than half of the U.S. population takes two or more naps a month, according to the foundation, and 10 percent have taken a nap during a break at work.

"The bottom line for us is to tell people to make sleep one of their number one priorities," Drake said. "Because if you don't do that, then it easily falls to the bottom of the list."