Been sleeping less this last year? Well you’re not alone…

Since the beginning of the last decade health and wellness has become one of the largest trends in the world, with billions of people around the globe putting more time, money and effort into ensuring their mind and body are as healthy as can be. However, one area of people’s health which has been overlooked time and time again for a countless number of years is sleep. 

One of the most common misconceptions about sleep is that the amount you get is the most important thing to factor in, when in fact what people should be focusing on is the quality of sleep they’re achieving. Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic we’ve noticed a huge spike in the number of people visiting our site looking for help improving the quality of their sleep, so we decided to look further into the issue, and how COVID-19 might be affecting our sleep habits…

To do this we surveyed more than 5,000 Americans, and tracked their sleep app data, to reveal how many people across the United States had been getting enough REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, and how that number had changed since 2019.

During the study we discovered that Americans had 30% less ‘general sleep’ in 2020 than in 2019, as well as 64% less REM sleep –  which dropped from 87 minutes, to less than 53 minutes – meaning that most Americans were getting less than the recommended/needed amount of REM sleep.

REM Sleep is the deepest level of sleep, and is considered to be essential to remaining healthy and feeling rested. Rapid Eye Movement sleep is present in all mammals, and allows us to dream vividly. It’s estimated that the average person has about 1-2 hours (12.5% – 25%) of REM sleep for every 8 hours of normal sleep*.

When asked why they thought their amount and quality of sleep had declined, nearly all (96%) of the people we spoke to selected a COVID-19 related issue. 

For example, more than a third (34%) stated it was due to ‘remote working’ and ‘being unable to switch off’, while a further quarter (25%) said it was owing to ‘COVID Insomnia’. 

The third most common reason was ‘lack of everyday stimuli’ with 21% of respondents choosing this option, followed by ‘lack of exercise due to lockdown’ with 16% of the votes.

When asked whether they believed their sleep patterns/habits had worsened, nearly all (93%) of respondents selected ‘yes’. Of these respondents more than four fifths (84%) stated the changes in their routines/sleep habits have had a negative effect on their mental or physical health/wellbeing.

Looking at the data, we also found that women tended to have better sleeping habits, with more than a third (36%) of women getting more ‘general sleep’ than men, while a further 27% had a higher amount of REM sleep than men. 

To dig deeper into the issue, we decided to delve into some Google Trends data, and discovered that the the number of searches relating to COVID-19 Insomnia had risen by more than 5000%+ across a series of different search terms, including; ‘covid insomnia’, ‘coronavirus insomnia’, and ‘covid and insomnia’, among others. 

As part of the survey, we also asked each of our respondents for access to their sleeping app data, in order to better understand the quality of sleep being enjoyed in the United States as a whole. 

The tracked data revealed that the amount of REM sleep compared with 2019 had decreased by nearly two thirds (64%) from 87 minutes to 53 minutes, and that the total amount of sleep people had been getting had dropped by 30%. On top of this though, we also discovered that people had been going to bed two hours later on average. 

In 2019 people most commonly went to bed between 10pm and 11pm, however in 2020 this changed to 12pm and 1am. Despite this later bedtime though, more than 60% of people were still getting up within the same time period the following morning.

The data also revealed that the average American’s heart rate when sleeping had risen by 21bpm across the board, from 63bpm to 84bpm. When speaking with the respondents on this issue, we discovered that more than three quarters (77%) had been feeling ‘more stressed’ since the beginning of the pandemic, while a further 56% admitted to ‘living an unhealthy’ lifestyle in 2020 compared with 2019.

Jasmin Lee, Wellness Writer at  Eachnight, said, 

“When we launched eachnight, our mission was to improve the sleep and overall wellness of as many people as we possibly could, and our drive to achieve this goal hasn’t wavered. That’s why we think it’s so important to gain an understanding of the general public’s sleep patterns and behaviours, and is the reason we decided to carry out this survey. 

“To be honest when I saw the results they didn’t surprise me at all, we’re living in an unprecedented time full of worry, uncertainty and disruption. With the added stress of the past year for almost everyone,  and as more and more people began working from home it was inevitable that quality of sleep in the United States was going to take a hit. We know that being in the same environment for 24 hours a day without breaking up your settings or stimulating your brain almost always has a negative effect on our brain in terms of getting some shut-eye.

“Our hope is that as we begin to return to a sense of normality, and COVID is eventually put behind us, that sleep will again begin to improve – as it is one of the pillar stones of health, not just mental, but also physical.”

Source:

*https://www.healthline.com/health/how-much-deep-sleep-do-you-need#takeaway