Insomniacs and stressful jobs go hand in hand
Bottom Line: It’s not unusual for high stress work and a lack of sleep to go hand in hand. The irony is we need the sleep to perform our best, yet the anxiety from the work often keeps us up thinking about what we need to do next. It can be a vicious, though not uncommon cycle. According to a new study from Ball State, 35% of adults aren’t getting enough sleep on a regular basis. The study, using medical data from over 158,000 adults found that just over a third of adults are getting less than six hours of sleep per night and the number is growing. In fact, 5% more Americans were sleep deprived in 2018 compared to 2010. And to home in on what’s driving it, they broke out the data based on profession and they found a connection with the most demanding work often resulting in the most sleep deprivation. These are the jobs with a majority of professionals that aren’t getting enough sleep:
- Police
- Firefighters
- Military
- Doctors
- Nurses
- Truck Drivers
- Factory workers
The two biggest factors driving the sleep deprivation are stress and inconsistent work schedules. If this sounds familiar, regardless of your line of work, anything you can do to attempt to normalize your sleep schedule and reduce stress is helpful. Part of our issue is stimulating ourselves with mobile devices in bed, only adding to our stress. We need to focus only what relaxes us once in bed.