Raise your hand if you feel tired…all the time. If you’re waving in the air, you’re not alone.
PlushBeds recently released their analysis of the CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data to reveal trends in who is getting the most and least sleep and how that’s affecting their finances.
Unsurprisingly, the most financially stressed generation, millennials aren’t sleeping as well as they should. Causes that particularly affect this age group include exposure to technology before bed, an ingrained tendency to work side gigs in addition to full-time careers, and financial worries associated with coming of age during the 2008 recession. CNBC reported that during the pandemic, millennials, who range in age from 26 to 41, and members of Gen Z, who are between the ages of 18 and 25, were among those whose savings took the biggest hit. Millennials were also more likely than other age groups to owe more in credit card debt than what’s in their savings.
It was also found that Black Millennial Americans are the least likely to get enough rest, with a reported 7 hours or less of nightly sleep on average. This can be attributed to the strain that racial injustices have left on US residents. “White Americans were more likely to achieve seven-plus hours of sleep each night than any other race in the country, most noticeably more than Black Americans. Here’s the breakdown: 71% of white Americans sleep seven or more hours, compared to 68% of Hispanic Americans, 66% of Asian Americans, 64% of American Indians and Alaska Natives, and just 58% of Black Americans.”
Location also plays a major role in how much sleep we get, according to the analysis.
The Midwest is a hub for the most rested residents, the results found. People who live in South Dakota and Minnesota reported getting more than seven hours of sleep per night. The report cited better air quality as a possible contributing factor, which has been shown to help with increased sleep duration.
States that slept poorly, however, had less in common and were much more spread out in terms of location and climate. Hawaii, West Virginia, and Alabama took the bottom three places in terms of sleep quantity, with only 63% to 64% of their residents able to attain seven hours or more of sleep each night. That said, the comparison between renters and owners is still stark, and may point again to the trend of being able to get more sleep when financially better off.
Lastly, when looking at the presence of children in the home, 36% of respondents were not getting enough sleep at night. No difference was found between moms and dads; regardless of gender, parents reported getting less sleep across the board.