Trends in the prevalence of short sleepers in the USA: 1975-2006

Abstract

Study objectives: To determine (1) whether short sleep has increased over 31 years; (2) whether trends in short sleep differed by employment status; (3) which sociodemographic factors predict short sleep; and (4) how short sleepers spend their time.

Design: Time diaries from eight national studies conducted between 1975 and 2006.

Patients or participants: U.S. adults > or = 18 years.

Measurements and results: Short sleepers were defined as those reporting < 6 hours of sleep in their time diary. Unadjusted percentages of short sleepers ranged from 7.6% in 1975 to 9.3% in 2006. The 1998-99 study had the highest odds of short sleep. The odds ratio for the 31-year period predicting short sleep was 1.14 (95% CI: 0.92, 1.50, P = 0.22), adjusting for age, sex, education, employment, race, marital status, income, and day of week. When stratified by employment, there was a significant increase for full-time workers (P = 0.05), who represented over 50% of participants in all studies, and a significant decrease for students (P = 0.01), who represented < 5% of participants. The odds of short sleep were lower for women, those > or = 65 years, Asians, Hispanics, and married people. The odds were higher for full-time workers, those with some college education, and African Americans. Short sleepers in all employment categories spent more time on personal activities. Short sleepers who were full- and part-time workers spent much more time working.

Conclusions: Based on time diaries, the increase in the odds of short sleep over the past 31 years was significant among full-time workers only. Work hours are much longer for full-time workers sleeping < 6 hours.

Figure 1

Odds ratios predicting short sleep (< 6 h) by year of study from a logistic regression model adjusted for age, sex, education, employment status and day of week. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.

Figure 2

Odds ratios predicting short sleep (< 6 h) stratified by employment status adjusted for age, sex, education – day of week for each subsequent study compared to the 1975 study. Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals. 1 = 1975; 2 = 1985; 3 = 1992-4; 4 = 1998-99; 5 = 2003; 6 = 2004; 7 = 2005; 8 = 2006.

Figure 3

Odds ratios predicting short sleep (< 6h) for each sociodemographic variable from a single logistic regression model adjusting for each sociodemographic variable in figure as well as year of study and day of week. [Note data from 1985 and 1992-94 were omitted due to missing income, marital status, or race data.] Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals.