Sleep and insomnia statistics 2026: short sleep, insomnia, CBT-I and sleep medication

of US adults slept less than 7 hours in a 24-hour period on average in 2024¹

National Health Interview Survey data, published April 2026.

of Black non-Hispanic adults slept less than 7 hours on average in 2024, the highest of the groups reported¹

Compared with 28.9% of White, 29.0% of Hispanic and 27.9% of Asian non-Hispanic adults.

of adults aged 50 to 64 were short sleepers in 2024, versus 27.2% of adults 18 to 34 and 27.2% of those 65 and older¹

of US adults usually woke up feeling well rested in 2024¹

of US adults reported short sleep duration (under 7 hours) in 2020²

Age-adjusted BRFSS estimate; crude prevalence was 32.7%.

range in short sleep prevalence across US counties in 2020, from Boulder County, Colorado, to Greene County, Alabama²

range in the share of adults not getting enough sleep across states in 2022, from Vermont to Hawaii³

CDC says the national share did not change from 2013 to 2022.

of US adults reported getting the recommended 7 or more hours of sleep in 2014⁴

CDC described this as more than one third of adults reporting short sleep.

hours of sleep per night is CDC's recommendation for adults aged 18 to 60⁵

of adults have insomnia disorder⁶

of US adults met DSM-IV-TR criteria for insomnia in the America Insomnia Survey⁷

Only 3.9% met the stricter ICD-10 criteria.

of the general population has insomnia symptoms, and about 6% meet criteria for an insomnia diagnosis⁸

Review of international epidemiological studies; 9% to 15% have symptoms with daytime consequences.

people in the United States are affected by chronic insomnia each year⁹

of US adults had trouble falling asleep most days or every day in 2024¹

of US adults had trouble staying asleep most days or every day in 2024¹

of women versus men had trouble staying asleep in 2024¹

of adults in nonmetropolitan areas had trouble staying asleep in 2020, versus 14.4% in large central metro areas¹⁰

of lost work performance per year are associated with insomnia per affected worker¹¹

America Insomnia Survey of 7,428 employed adults; 7.8 days after controlling for other conditions.

estimated annual human capital value of lost work performance per worker with insomnia¹¹

provisional estimate of the annual US population-level cost of insomnia-related lost work performance¹¹

ACP recommends that all adults with chronic insomnia disorder receive cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) as the initial treatment¹²

Strong recommendation, moderate-quality evidence (2016 guideline).

faster sleep onset after CBT-I, on average, in a meta-analysis of 20 trials¹³

Sleep onset latency improved by 19.03 minutes in trials including 1,162 participants.

less time awake after sleep onset following CBT-I¹³

improvement in sleep efficiency after CBT-I¹³

of US adults surveyed recognized CBT-I¹⁴

Online survey of 3,080 US adults; 80.5% were familiar with melatonin.

of US adults surveyed used CBT-I in the past year¹⁴

By comparison, 39.2% used an over-the-counter sleep aid and 9.1% a prescription sleep medication in the past year.

patients with insomnia complaints seen per month were referred for CBT-I by physicians in one US study⁹

Conroy and Ebben (2015), as cited in the review.

people worldwide had been credentialed by the Board of Behavioral Sleep Medicine as of 2022⁹

of US adults took sleep medication every day or most days in the past 30 days in 2020¹⁵

A further 10.0% took sleep medication on some days.

of women versus men took sleep medication every day or most days in 2020¹⁵

of adults aged 65 and older took sleep medication every day or most days in 2020¹⁵

of US adults used a prescription medication commonly used for insomnia in the past month (NHANES 1999-2010)¹⁶

Use increased between 1999-2000 and 2009-2010; zolpidem and trazodone were most common.

of people using prescription insomnia medications also used opioids¹⁶

rise in US adults using melatonin supplements from 1999-2000 to 2017-2018¹⁷

cases of complex sleep behaviors with serious injury or death linked to eszopiclone, zaleplon or zolpidem were identified by FDA reviewers, including 20 deaths¹⁸

Cases from FDA adverse event reports and the medical literature, 1992 to 2018.