The dark side of the American work ethic: widespread sleep deprivation, linked to obesity, depression, even early death

Many Americans are long overdue for a good nap. Their health—and that of the economy—might depend on it.

A rising share of Americans are sleeping less than they should, adding on to the country’s persistent sleep deficit that public health experts say will lead to far worse outcomes than simple grogginess. In 2024, 30.5% of Americans—almost one third—slept on average less than seven hours a night, according to data released last week by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Only 54.8% of adults wake up feeling well-rested on most days, the national survey found.

Sleep is critical to being in good health, regulating how people think and informing everything from mood to physical health. But the country’s lack of sleep is a problem for everyone, even for those lucky Americans who are able to get enough shut-eye. In addition to individual health, insufficient sleep creates a drag on medical spending, workplace productivity, and long-term health outcomes. America’s chronic inability to get enough sleep comes with a real cost attached, one that researchers have put in the hundreds of billions of dollars in annual economic losses.

The other culprit is the thing that makes the American economy so great: the rise and grind ethos that sees Americans work far more hours than counterparts in most developed economies. The American work ethic is coming at a steep cost.

A good night’s rest matters

Sleep difficulties have become so common many now take them as a fact of life. More than half of adults surveyed by the CDC said they had trouble either falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up too early at least some of the time, while almost 18% said those problems occurred most days or every day. 

The problem cuts along predictable fault lines. Women, Black adults, lower-income groups, and those with less education are more likely to report short sleep or chronic sleep problems—populations that often work multiple jobs, longer hours, or lack the flexibility to set their own schedules.

Other surveys suggest the problem is getting worse. In 2013, 56% of Americans said they got enough sleep and only 43% said they would like more, according to a 2024 Gallup poll. But by 2023, the statistics had flipped: 57% said they would feel better with more sleep and only 42% said they are sleeping enough.

Researchers have offered up several other explanations for Americans’ plummeting sleep scores. Excessive screen time in the evening has been linked with lower sleep quality, while diets heavy in sugars and saturated fats can also make falling asleep more difficult and the experience less restorative. Stress might also play a role. The Gallup poll found that around half of Americans report feeling stressed in their daily lives, a factor the American Psychological Association says can further degrade sleep quality, which in turn exacerbates stress.

Put America’s sleep numbers next to its peer nations and the picture gets more uncomfortable. A 2025 study tracking actual sleep duration across countries found France averaging 7 hours 52 minutes a night, while the UK averaged 7 hours 33 minutes and Canada came in at 7 hours 27 minutes. The U.S. clocked around 7 hours 5 minutes—below nearly every comparable wealthy nation.

The outlier at the bottom is instructive: Japan averages just 6 hours 18 minutes of sleep per night—the shortest among developed nations—and its overwork culture is so extreme it spawned the word karoshi, meaning “death by overwork.” South Korea sits nearby, averaging roughly the same, and has seen its government declare a public health emergency around the issue. The U.S. is trending toward that end of the spectrum, not the European one.

The likely reason isn’t hard to find. U.S. workers log around 1,976 hours a year on the job—roughly 400 more than Germans, and significantly more than the French, Canadians, and British, according to ILO data. Northern European countries that sleep the most also tend to work the least. Denmark, where average weekly hours hover around 26, consistently ranks among the world’s most well-rested populations. The U.S. has no statutory cap on weekly work hours at all—federal law only mandates overtime pay after 40 hours, not a hard stop.

The Productivity Paradox

The cruel irony of America’s sleep deficit is that overwork undermines the output it’s meant to produce. A worker sleeping fewer than six hours a night loses around six working days a year to presenteeism and absenteeism. Scaled nationally, that translates to roughly 1.2 million lost working days and nearly 10 million unaccounted work hours annually, according to a 2017 study by researchers at RAND Europe, a nonprofit policy think tank..

Insufficient sleep could be costing the U.S. anywhere from $218 billion to $411 billion a year in economic costs, per the study

The numbers get worse the longer poor sleep habits are allowed to persist. Because inadequate rest raises mortality, premature deaths add to the economic headwind. The study also took into account the morbid consideration that an early death would lead to fewer deaths and eventually shrink the workforce. The authors estimated that by 2030, sleep issues could cost the economy between $318 and $456 billion.

For sleepers, the incentive to sleep more and better is one’s own mental and physical health. But even for businesses and policymakers who build the world everyone’s clock follows, the case for treating sleep as a priority could hardly be stronger.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com