La Crosse, Wisconsin...
There's at least one thing that American men and women do in bed that they'd like to do a lot more of, a new survey reports.

What they don't do enough of is sleep.

According to the just-completed nationwide survey of 1,000 men and women, conducted for The Company Store, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, Americans average only 6.8 hours of sleep each night. However, if they were able to sleep as long as they want, they'd sleep 8.3 hours -- an hour and a-half longer than they do now -- or ten and a-half hours more each week.

And women would prefer to get more sleep (8.6 hours) each night than men (8.0 hours).

The statistically-representative survey was conducted by an independent consumer research organization* for The Company Store, specialists in sleep comfort and best known for its catalog of down comforters and pillows, manufactured in La Crosse and shipped to customers throughout the world.

"Studies have shown that an insufficient amount of restful sleep can reduce our alertness and impair our judgment, efficiency and responsiveness, often with serious consequences," said Jeff Potts, president of The Company Store. He pointed out that experts say most adults require between eight and 8 1/2 hours of sleep for peak alertness and performance.

Potts said "Americans should be losing sleep over the sleep they are losing," pointing out that sleep time has declined 20% since 1910 and that our national sleep deficit appears to be increasing.

In a related, recently-released survey entitled "Sleepiness in America," the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation in Washington, DC, found that "an alarming" one-third of adult Americans, report significant daytime sleepiness. The group warned that sleepiness can have a negative impact on workplace performance, personal safety, and social and family relationships.

The participants in The Company Store sleep survey were asked: How many hours do you usually sleep at night? and If you could sleep as long as you want, how many hours would you like to sleep every night? Here are some of the key findings:

• We average 6.8 hours of sleep, with very little gender difference -- 6.7 hours sleep for men, 6.8 for women.
• 69% of us sleep 7 hours or less.
• But we'd like to sleep much longer, an average of 8.3 hours -- 8 hours for men, 8.6 for women.
• While only 29.5% of all Americans sleep 8 or more hours, 72.5% would like to sleep that long.
• 17.6% would like to sleep 10 or more hours.
• Young adults (the 18 to 24 age group) would like to sleep longer than anyone else, 9.5 hours.

The surveys are a "wake-up call that we should spend more time in bed." said Potts. "Americans want more sleep because they need more sleep."

* National Sleep Survey -- Conducted June 1997 for The Company Store, of La Crosse, Wisconsin, by Bruskin-Goldring Research, of Edison, NJ, among 1,000 adult men and women

How much sleep do we get?

10 hours or more	............................	3.0%
9 hours	............................	2.3%
8 hours	............................	24.2%
7 hours	............................	27.1%
6 hours	............................	27.4%
5 hours	............................	10.1%
4 hours	............................	3.3%
3 hours or less	............................	1.1%
Don't know/No response	............................	1.5%

How much sleep would we like to get?

10 hours or more	............................	17.6%
9 hours	............................	11.7%
8 hours	............................	43.2%
7 hours	............................	13.8%
6 hours	............................	8.8%
5 hours	............................	2.0%
4 hours	............................	0.9%
3 hours or less	............................	0.7%
Don't know/No response	............................	1.3%

Please note: The telephone number for the The Company Store's catalog of down comforters, pillows, featherbeds and other bedroom comfort and fashion products is 1-800-285-3696.

CONTACT:
AGG International, Public Relations
Paula Zwerdling
Managing Director
(212) 869-8230

Back to Top