Real Research on Naps
1 in 3 adults confess to a midday snooze
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It’s no surprise that people, specifically Americans in this case, nap. But it is a bit surprising that the Pew Research Center Social & Demographic Trends department analyzed and released the demographics of the napping American population.
Pew surveyed 1,488 Americans on a variety of topics, just one of which was napping habits. The results concluded that 1 in 3 adult Americans naps on an “average” day. Who’s more likely to nap?
- Men over Women
- 80+ over younger folk
- Blacks over whites and Hispanics
- Those making under $30K/year…
- But those making over $100K/year nap more than the those making $75-99K/year (in fact this last group naps the least by far)
- Those who exercised in the last 24 hours (I’d like a little more info. on this one…but Pew doesn’t elaborate)
And…
drumroll please… - Those who didn’t sleep especially well the night before!
The New York Times, where I first spotted this report, did state one potential pitfall with the study:
“The survey did not precisely define what constitutes a nap. Some people claim they are just resting their eyes when they are really snoozing. Others may doze momentarily when reading articles about demographic trends.”
–Katie Herrell
Nap Time by Paul Taylor, Pew Research Center
A Look at Who Naps by Sam Roberts, The New York Times