The National Sleep Foundation reports that 45% of Americans say that poor, insufficient sleep affects their daily lives. But the coronavirus crisis may be changing that — for the better.
You’d think that we’d be tossing and turning at night, plagued with anxiety, during the current crisis. Data gathered from sleep-tracking apps and wearables indicates that people are actually getter more, better-quality sleep.
Fitbit, for example, says that wearers are getting an additional 17 minutes of sleep now than they did prior to the lockdown. Of these, 36% are reporting an additional 30 minutes more sleep.
According to Fast Company , which requested the data, people are going to bed at the same time but rising later. The extra sleep is most likely because many are no longer commuting and are able to sleep in longer. The Fitbit data concurs with other findings, and since one-fifth of Americans wear some kind of fitness tracker or smartwatch, the figures represent a good portion of the population.
Other interesting findings include statistics on exercise. According to Fast Company, data gathered from almost 70,000 fitness trackers showed that physical activity in the U.S. dropped a whopping 48% from March 1 to April 6. This usually indicates an increase in sleeplessness, David Walsh, developer of the sleep tracker AutoSleep told Fast Company. As activity levels drop, so does the quality and quantity of sleep.
But the new data says we are sleeping better, despite the anxiety generated by the virus and reduced physical activity.
Lynn C. Allison ✉
Lynn C. Allison, a Newsmax health reporter, is an award-winning medical journalist and author of more than 30 self-help books.
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