Feeling tired? If you live in Florida, there’s a reason for that, this survey says
You know how you have been feeling tired pretty much all the time since mid-March? Except for the times you were binge eating/drinking more than is good for you/weeping softly into your pillow?
You’re not alone. Apparently nobody in Florida is sleeping. A new survey reports that the average Floridian has lost a lot of sleep since the COVID-19 pandemic began.
The blogger outreach agency Ocere.com asked 3,000 Americans how much “sleep debt” they’ve experienced since the start of the pandemic. “Sleep debt,” according to the National Sleep Foundation, is “the difference between the amount of sleep that you need and the amount that you’re actually getting. Like “actual debt,” it is not fun to repay.
Florida respondents reported they were losing 22.1 hours of sleep per week, which averages out to three hours a night. The national average is 21.4 hours a week, so we’re overachieving in our insomnia.
The survey — which also resulted in this interactive of map of the United States that shows how much sleep debt every state is racking up — also revealed that a quarter of the respondents say their sleep routines have changed since the start of the pandemic. That will happen when you wake up with your heart pounding in the middle of the night, wondering whether you can leave your home safely again.
And not surprisingly, 37 percent reported that coronavirus is the biggest reason for the insomnia, with 20 percent saying they’re not sleeping because they are out of sync with their usual sleep patterns (duh). Another 20 percent blames being inside too much, while 18 percent are stressed about money and five percent complain about a lack of exercise.
Personally, we spend at least 20 percent of our time worrying that a hurricane is going to hit, but there was no mention of that.
How many hours should you be sleeping? The National Sleep Foundation says adults you need 7-9 hours a night if you’re an adult aged 18-64. Maybe in 2021?
