Americans Aren't Sleeping Enough

A May 2026 CDC data brief reports that 30.5% of U.S. adults surveyed in 2024 are sleeping fewer than the recommended seven hours per night, a figure largely unchanged since 2020. Sleep insufficiency is clinically associated with cardiometabolic conditions including diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

Approximately 15% of adults report difficulty falling asleep and 18% struggle to stay asleep. A concurrent publication indicates that roughly 13% of U.S. adults use sleep aids nightly — including prescription medications, OTC supplements, and cannabis-derived products — prompting clinical guidance that habitual self-medication warrants physician evaluation to identify potential underlying sleep disorders. Read more from NPR here.