Are you tired? If so, you aren’t alone. An alarming number of the country’s adults are tired most days, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And that could have significant implications for public health.
In 2024, the year the data were collected, nearly a third of all U.S. adults slept fewer than the recommended seven hours per night on average. Only a little more than half of U.S. adults said they woke up feeling “well-rested” on most days.
It’s hard to overstate how important sleep is for your health: Research shows that getting enough rest can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease, help regulate hormones, and keep blood sugar under control and that it may even help fight dementia. It can also affect your mood and mental health.
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That is why health experts are worried that so many adults seem to be missing out on those z’s. “Our need for sleep parallels our need for air and water,” said Michael Grandner, director of the Sleep and Health Research Program at the University of Arizona, in an interview about the report with MedPage Today.
According to the report, around 40 percent of Black adults are getting fewer than seven hours of sleep per night on average and are less likely to wake up feeling well-rested than their Asian, white and Hispanic peers. Asian adults were the most likely to report feeling well-rested—about 62 percent. The report is part of the National Health Interview Survey, a poll involving thousands of U.S. adults.
Men and women reported about the same rates of undersleeping, but men tended to say that they woke up feeling well-rested more often than women did. Women were also more likely than men to say that they found it hard to fall asleep at night—with the experience reported by about 19 percent of women versus about 12 percent of men.
Broken down by age, adults aged 65 and older reported that they woke up feeling well-rested on at least most days with the impressive frequency of about 64 percent of the time. Adults aged 18 to 34, on the other hand, had the hardest time falling asleep of any age group.
If you are struggling to fall asleep, experts recommend techniques such as getting out of bed to do a calming activity such as reading or breathing exercises, avoiding phone scrolling and snacking and seeing a doctor if the problem persists.