More than 17 per cent of US adults – almost 45 million Americans are stressed, saying the upcoming Presidential elections have negatively impacted their sleep, according to a survey by the National Sleep Foundation. The survey found that people sleep less on the weekend and have poorer sleep quality overall. The negative impact on sleep of the 2024 presidential election cut across all groups, including political party affiliation, results showed.
“The dynamics of stressful societal events like elections and election day can adversely affect the public’s mood, and in turn sleep health, which is critical for health and well-being,” Joseph Dzierzweski, senior vice president for research and scientific affairs at the National Sleep Foundation (NSF), said in an NSF news release. “This reinforces the importance of addressing sleep health during periods of high stress.” Anxiety and sleep feed on each other According to sleep experts, anxiety and sleeplessness are interrelated.
Those who have a problem of anxiety get poorer sleep, and those who don’t sleep well are more prone to anxiety. People affected by the election are getting about 7 hours of sleep on the weekend, nearly a half hour less than those who say their sleep hasn’t been disturbed by politics, results showed. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being excellent and 5 being poor), those worried about the election had an average sleep quality of about 3.
36, compared to 2.05 for those not affected by politics. Sleepless.
