The amount of sleep people needs varies considerably by age and medical condition. WebMD reports that children ages 6 to 13 need nine to 11 hours of sleep. Teenagers need eight to 10. The recommendation for people 65 and older drops to seven to eight hours a day. Women in their first three months of pregnancy may need several more hours of sleep a day than they do when they are not pregnant. Rarely, some people may get by on six hours of sleep a night.
Sleep deprivation can cause several troubling health conditions. Among these are loss of memory, weight gain, depression and cravings for junk food.
Nationwide, 35.2% of adults report not getting enough sleep. In some parts of the country, however, adults are far more likely than average to get the recommended minimum of seven hours of sleep per night.
Using data from County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR), a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute joint program, 24/7 Tempo identified America’s least sleep-deprived metropolitan area. Metro areas we considered were ranked by the share of adults not getting enough sleep, which ranged on this list from 26.6% to 32.4%.
To improve sleep habits, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends developing a routine of going to bed at the same time each night and waking up at the same time every day. The CDC also advises regular exercise and avoiding caffeine, large meals and alcohol before bedtime. Removing electronic devices, such as TVs and computers, from the bedroom also can help improve sleep habits.
The least sleep-deprived city in America is Boulder, Colorado. Here are the details:
- Adults reporting insufficient sleep: 26.6%
- Adults reporting poor or fair health: 11.2% (the lowest of 384 metros)
- Average number of mentally unhealthy days reported in past month: 3.6 (12th lowest)
- Adult obesity rate: 14.3% (the lowest)
- Adults with diabetes: 5.5% (second lowest)
In our search for America’s least sleep-deprived metropolitan area, we used the 384 metropolitan statistical areas as delineated by the United States Office of Management and Budget and used by the Census Bureau as our definition of metros.
Metros were ranked based on the share of adults reporting insufficient sleep. Additional information on the share of adults reporting poor or fair health, the average number of mentally unhealthy days reported in the past 30 days, adults 20 years and older who report a body mass index of 30 kg/m2 or higher (adult obesity rate) and the share of adults 20 years and older with diagnosed diabetes are also from the 2021 CHR. While the CHR report is from 2021, insufficient sleep figures published in the report are from 2018.
Click here to see all of America’s least sleep-deprived cities