A new survey published in the journal Sleep finds that, on average, Americans are slowly but surely getting more shut-eye, even if it’s just a few minutes each week, reports PsychCentral.
The findings show that, overall, people seem to be turning in a little earlier and spending less time watching TV or reading just before bed.
The research, based on the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), found that daily sleep duration increased by 1.4 minutes on weekdays and 0.8 minutes on weekends each year.
At first glance, this may not seem like much progress. However, over the 14-year period it translates to 17.3 minutes more sleep each night, or 4.4 full days more sleep each year. Overall, these numbers amount to an extra 7.5 hours of sleep each year over the 14-year period. The survey involved 181,335 respondents aged 15 and older between 2003 and 2016.
