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Title: The Economic and Psychological Determinants of Sleep Among Adults in the United States

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2019

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Abstract: As many as one-third of Americans report getting too little sleep. Short sleep duration, often defined as less than seven hours, is associated with obesity, decreased cognitive functioning, dementia, heart disease, diabetes, and mortality (Ferrie, 2007). Much of the prior research on sleep duration and its determinants have used data in which respondents are asked to recall their average daily sleep over the past month or longer, data that are known to be inaccurate. Little research has been done using more accurate data available in time diaries, and even this data only extends through 2012, before the full effect of the Great Recession has been seen. For example, the recent recession led to housing loss, increased financial stress, and a restructured labor market that consisted of more precarious work, factors which are associated with lack of sufficient sleep. Additionally, the use of smartphones and tablets has proliferated since 2011; the number of Americans with a smartphone excessively increased from 35% in 2011 to 77% in 2016 (Smith, 2017), an increase linking to a decrease in sleep. Data was derived from the American Time Use Survey (ATUS), collected by the U.S. Census Bureau, to analyze the determinants of sleep duration among Americans ages 18 to 64 from 2009 through 2017. The dependent variable is defined as minutes a person sleeps on an average night. Using Ordinary Least Squares on repeated cross-sectional data, results find that over the period under study, the average amount of sleep people get stays roughly constant. These results are due to offsetting trends. The increase in obesity, education, electronic communication, and average age from 2003 to 2017 has reduced the amount people sleep. This increase is offset by the declining average self-reported health (since healthier people sleep less) and the increasing share of people who have never married and who therefore do not have children.

Url: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses

Url: https://digitalcommons.pace.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1215&context=honorscollege_theses

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Authors: Jackson, Caroline

Institution: Pace University

Department: Department of Economics

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Pages: 23

Data Collections: IPUMS Time Use - ATUS

Topics: Health

Countries: United States