Almost all adults have difficulty sleeping at least once a week, with 25% experiencing up to 4 bad night’s sleep per week, new research shows. And although 85% of adults would like to get the recommended 7+ hours, in practice, fewer than half of adults (49%) get this much sleep during the working week, with Brits catching an average of only 5 hours of Zzzs during a typical work night. As a result, only 12% of us are ‘very satisfied’ with our sleep quality, leaving almost 9 out of 10 adults with room for improvement.
Brits wake up on average 3h:30mins into their sleep, with adults waking up twice per night on average. Sunday, the day of “Sunday Scaries” setting in, was voted as the night adults typically get the worst sleep (18%), with Tuesday their best, with only 4% of adults claiming it as their worst sleep of the week. The results showed that on average women would prefer a little more sleep than men - an extra 11minutes - which is consistent with recent findings* that women have a slightly greater sleep need.
Women are also less satisfied with the quality of their sleep with 1 in 4 men and 1 in 3 women saying they are ‘very/quite dissatisfied’ with their sleep. The most common reason blamed for getting in the way of getting some proper shut-eye was "stress, worries or a racing mind," especially for women (54% vs. 38% for men).
Almost 1 in 5 cited financial strain (18%), which increased to 1 in 4 for 35-44s (25%). Only 12% of adults say that they are very con.