Americans are trading sleep for work

More than one third of American adults report getting fewer than seven hours of sleep on weekdays, and many try to sleep extra long on weekends to make up for it.

This isn't a particularly healthy way to live - insufficient sleep is linked to obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other physical ailments. Drowsy driving causes about 80,000 automobile accidents every year, 1,000 of which are fatal.

The simple reason for shortchanging sleep? Work. Researchers examined nearly 125,000 responses to the American Time Use Survey to calculate how much sleep we're getting, and what we're doing instead of sleeping.

Compared with normal sleepers, short sleepers - those who get six hours or less on weeknights - worked 1.5 more hours on weekdays and nearly 2 hours more on weekends and holidays. Not surprisingly, "the highest odds of being a short sleeper were found among adults working multiple jobs.

To put it another way: to the extent that we're trading sleep for work, our jobs are literally killing us.

Aside from work, commuting was the activity most likely to compete with sleep for time, followed by socializing, sleeplessness (lying in bed unable to sleep), and personal grooming. TV watching was ranked ninth on the list of activities exchanged for sleep. - Washington Post