The Better Sleep Council (BSC), the consumer education arm of the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA), released its latest research findings from “The 2020 State of America’s Sleep” study. It revealed COVID-19’s arrival caused America’s quality of sleep to significantly decline.
The Better Sleep Council launched wave two of “The State of America’s Sleep” in January 2020, but then completed another round of research in March 2020, to compare sleep habits during the COVID-19 pandemic. Themes such as spikes in stress, health worries and economic concerns emerged from the study.
Stress Skyrockets
In January 2020, four in 10 (41%) Americans reported feeling stressed often or very often. As of March, over half Americans (53%) felt stressed about COVID-19 often or very often.
Sleep Suffers
In January 2020, 54% of Americans were getting the minimum 7-8 hours of recommended sleep. As of March, fewer than half (49%) did.
Similarly, in January 2020, over four in 10 Americans described their sleep as poor or fair (43%). As of March, over half of the nation qualified their sleep as poor or fair (52%).
Economic Woes
About one-third of the nation felt good about the economy in January 2020 (38%) vs. less than 20% did as of March 2020.
Lack of confidence in the stock market prevailed in the nation in March (56% of Americans disagree that they have confidence in the stock market vs. 39% in January 2020).
“It’s no surprise that COVID-19 negatively impacted Americans’ health and the extreme two-month sleep shift is alarming,” says Mary Helen Rogers, vice president of marketing and communications for the Better Sleep Council, in a release. “However, if we take our findings and help Americans unwind and sleep better during this pandemic, we’ll fulfill our role as the Guardians of America’s Sleep.”
