Why Our Sleep Time Matters

People in New Zealand seem to sleep more than the rest of us:

U.S. Sleep Time

Between 2019 and 2022, on average, we slept 10 more minutes. However, it was not all of us. If you are a man, have no children, or are a young adult between the age of 25 and 34, then you’ve been sleeping more.

While women had an extra nine-minute increase in their sleep time, for men, it was approximately 16 minutes. As for the correlation with parenting, people without children slept an extra 25 minutes between 2003 and 2022–especially women. From 2019 to 2022, women with no children slept 13 more minutes whereas dads added just 5 minutes. And predictably, men without children do get more sleep–30 minutes more–than their “brothers” with kids.

Researchers hypotheize that the pandemic affected our sleep time. We slept later when we worked from home with women adding an extra 43 minutes compared with 19 for men. However, by 2021 the gender sleep gap shrunk.

Our Bottom Line: Productivity

Still though, one sleep researcher told us that “Work is the ‘No. 1 sleep killer.”” As he explained, we just don’t want less leisure or socializing or time for our daily responsibilities. So the only block that gives us more time is sleep. And yet, less sleep could detract from our productivity at work.

According to a Rand study that covered more than 62,000 UK workers, the U.S. GDP is 2.28% lower because we don’t sleep enough. Translated into workdays, the total is 1.23 million that we missed.

But we are not alone. Other developed nations have the same problem. Canada, Germany, the U.K. and Japan also have less production because people are sleep deprived:

From: RAND Europe Analysis (2016)

Based on this Rand report, our 10 more minutes of sleep could add billions of dollars to our GDP.

My sources and more: For the economics of sleep, this Washington Post article is a good place to start.  Then, Rand looked at the impact of insomnia on productivity and the economic costs of poor sleep as did the World Economic Forum. And finally, do take a look at our past post on sleep.