Gallup poll’s recently released results show that only 26% of Americans are able to get at least an eight-hour sleep every night.
While 57% claimed that they would feel better if they could doze off for longer, just about 42% are satisfied with the amount their napping schedule.
In 2013, when the country was surveyed with the same set of questions, answers were obtained in reverse, where 56% were getting the level of sleep they needed and 43% weren’t.
Younger women especially have reported that they aren’t able to rest enough.
The sampling conductors didn’t get into the reason behind this because pre and post-pandemic data can’t be broken down, but a senior researcher named Sarah Fioroni from Gallup has suggested that the shift is notable.
One proposed explanation is “revenge bedtime procrastination,” where people trade sleep off to wind down as a way of handling stress that accumulates from working without appropriate rest.
Liz Meshel, an individual who was a part of this study said, “I’m like, ‘Well, I didn’t have any me time during the day, and it is now 10 p.m., so I am going to feel totally fine and justified watching X number of episodes of TV, spending this much time on Instagram, as my way to decompress.”
The person in question is a 30-year-old who lives in Bulgaria on a research grant and also has work a part-time job to make ends meet.