New York Post: As a result of the pandemic, many Americans are experiencing insomnia at elevated rates — especially parents, whose busy schedules were already prone to bouts of sleepless nights.

“I get up now hours before my kids to get a few hours of writing and work done,” University of Pennsylvania professor of sociology and demography Courtney Boen told Vox for a recent piece on how COVID-19 has turned the US into a “nation of insomniacs.”

“I know I’m not alone,” she added.

While the pandemic emphasized the importance of sleep for many, it also caused many to have fewer hours of it. Whether that be due to a sudden lack of child care or insomnia from the stress of fearing the novel coronavirus, multiple data points appear to reveal that the pandemic has been a particularly sleepless time for already tired Americans.

These include the fact that sales of sleep supplement melatonin soared by 42.6 percent in 2020. “That consumer behavior is a sign that people are struggling,” clinical psychologist Jennifer Martin told Vox — and that, in April and May, US Google searches for the word “insomnia” increased dramatically, one study found. 

Get the full story at nypost.com.