New Data on How Americans Sleep

The National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) has published two new reports about sleep for adults in the United States. One report looks at use of sleep aids. The other report looks at how many adults do not get enough sleep and how many have trouble sleeping. Both reports use information collected in the 2024 National Health Interview Survey.

Use of sleep aids

This report examined adults who used sleep aids to help them fall or stay asleep most days or every day in the past 30 days.

Key takeaways

• Almost 13% of adults used some kind of sleep aid most days or every day.
  • 2% used prescription sleep medications.
  • 7% used over-the-counter medications or supplements.
  • 7% used marijuana or cannabidiol (CBD) products for sleep.
• Women were more likely than men to use any sleep aids; however, marijuana/CBD use was similar for women and men.
• Use of any sleep aid increased with age (about 11% for ages 18–34 vs. 16% for 65+).
• Use of prescription and over-the-counter sleep medicines increased with age, while use of marijuana/CBD products for sleep declined with age.

Short sleep duration and sleep difficulties

This report looked at how much sleep adults usually get and how well they sleep.

Key takeaways

• About 3 in 10 adults reported getting less than 7 hours of sleep on average in a 24-hour period.
• More than half of adults usually wake up feeling well-rested.
• Sleep difficulties were common: about 1 in 6 had trouble falling asleep and about 1 in 5 had trouble staying asleep.
• Men and women had similar rates of short sleep, but women reported more trouble falling and staying asleep and were less likely to wake up well-rested.
• Asian, non-Hispanic adults (61.5%) were most likely to wake up well-rested compared with other racial and ethnic groups.