Report: Poor Americans Lose the Most Sleep

Many Americans are sleep-deprived, and those with lower incomes are losing the most sleep. That’s the main message of a brief report issued April 2 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The report was based on a national health survey from 2013. People were asked how many hours of sleep they get per night, on average. Lower-income people were more likely to report being sleep deprived. This was defined as less than 6 hours of sleep a night. About 35% of those with family incomes below poverty level were sleep deprived, compared with 28% of those with incomes at least 4 times the poverty level. All of these numbers are higher than some earlier surveys show. A study published in the journal Sleep in 2010 looked at past surveys that asked Americans about sleep habits. It found that about 7.6% of U.S.