Racial/Ethnic Sleep Pattern Differences in US

[JackKnightstick]

U.S. Sleep Study: Blacks Spend Most Time Awake In Bed

Blacks spend more time in bed without sleeping than any other ethnic group, according to a poll released yesterday by the National Sleep Foundation. The NSF conducts polls each year on various topics that relate to sleep behaviors, said Tom Balkin, chairman of the Washington, D.C.�based organization. This year�s report reveals significant differences in the sleep habits and attitudes of Asians, blacks, Hispanics and whites. It is the first poll to examine sleep among these four ethnic groups, Mr. Balkin said. The findings:

General Findings: Blacks spend 54 minutes on weekdays/workdays in bed without sleeping. Hispanics reported spending 42 minutes in bed without sleeping, 36 minutes for Asians and 25 minutes for whites. On weekends, time in bed without sleeping ranged from 71 minutes for blacks to 57 minutes for Hispanics, 43 minutes for whites and 41 minutes for Asians.

Amount Of Sleep: Blacks get the least amount of sleep on workdays/weekdays - six hours and 14 minutes. They also say that they need only seven hours and five minutes of sleep each night to perform at their best during the day, which is significantly less sleep than Asians and Hispanics - seven hours and 29 minutes each. "The finding that blacks/African-Americans say they need less sleep and get less sleep is instructive for public health professionals," says Jose S. Loredo, professor of medicine at the University of California, San Diego. "Their total sleep time and attitudes regarding sleep may be associated with blacks/African-Americans' higher rates of sleep apnea, hypertension and diabetes and provide sleep-related insight into how to improve awareness and education programs and, very importantly, how to improve therapy compliance rates."

Job-Related Work Before Bed: Blacks (17 percent) and Asians (16 percent) are more likely than whites and Hispanics (both 13 percent) to do such work in the hour before bed.

Sex: Ten percent of blacks and Hispanics report having sex every night, compared with four percent of whites and one percent of Asians. Mr. Balkin said the survey included questions about sex because of the impact it can have on sleep. The survey found that among married people or couples living together, all ethnic groups report being too tired for sex frequently - 21 to 26 percent of the time.

Praying: Some 71 percent of blacks report praying every night. That's more than four times the reported frequency of Asians (18 percent), more than twice the rate of whites (32 percent) and 1.5 times the rate of Hispanics (45 percent).

What Causes Sleepness Nights: Twelve percent of blacks reported losing sleep over financial concerns, and 10 percent over employment concerns. Only six percent of whites reported losing sleep over financial concerns, and seven percent reported losing sleep over employment concerns. The numbers were lower for Asians, at one percent and four percent respectively. The percent of sleep loss for Hispanics in this category were similar to blacks, with 11 percent losing sleep over financial concerns and nine percent losing sleep over employment concerns.

http://www.bookerrising.net/2010/03/...most-time.html



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I was married to a Japanese woman and now my present fiancee is Swiss. They both sleep more than I do. My Japanese wife slept more than anyone I've ever seen, sometimes during the week 9 hours a day and on the weekend 10 hours. She would always be sleep on the couch by 9:30PM...unless we were out. she could lay her head down on the bed and be asleep in less than 5 minutes.

I have never been able to do that. It might take 20-30 minutes for me to fall asleep unless I"m really really tired. On an average I sleep about 7 hours a night, on the weekend about 7.5 hours max. The only time I sleep over that if I go a few days without sleeping more than 6 hours or less.

[SilverI]

I'm in bed about 2 hours before I go to sleep. And I'm not black at all.

[JackKnightstick]

sleep is how the body repairs itself, but it does it more efficiently the more we age. I wonder is there some common variant in the circadian clock of blacks and Hispanics making them sleep less, making them more likely to gain weight, get diabetes, heart disease? Or is this all social? Blacks and Hispanics measure close to each other, both groups share a common economic status (although blacks tend to be more educated in America...) hmmm...I don't stay up worrying about bills or anything like that. I rarely worry about anything before bed, unless I'm anxious about something at work the next day. I usually read for about 20-30 minutes before bed to help induce sleep.

[Fedex]

I fall sleep in the bus, watching tv, etc. I can't spend more than 2 minutes awake in bed (alone).

[Geto-Thracian]

http://www.bookerrising.net/2010/03/...most-time.html



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I was married to a Japanese woman and now my present fiancee is Swiss. They both sleep more than I do. My Japanese wife slept more than anyone I've ever seen, sometimes during the week 9 hours a day and on the weekend 10 hours. She would always be sleep on the couch by 9:30PM...unless we were out. she could lay her head down on the bed and be asleep in less than 5 minutes.

I have never been able to do that. It might take 20-30 minutes for me to fall asleep unless I"m really really tired. On an average I sleep about 7 hours a night, on the weekend about 7.5 hours max. The only time I sleep over that if I go a few days without sleeping more than 6 hours or less.

I fall asleep within 10 minutes every night and wake up at exactly the same time in the morning regardless what time I went to sleep.

Funny coincidence about the praying aspect and how it correlates with IQ between the races...Lower IQ races pray more-no surprise there.

[riser]

I used to use marijuana to help fall asleep. Without it, it takes around 45 minutes to pass out. I'm pretty much fitting the black profile here. I don't need much sleep either.

[Geto-Thracian]

I used to use marijuana to help fall asleep. Without it, it takes around 45 minutes to pass out. I'm pretty much fitting the black profile here. I don't need much sleep either.

After I stopped blazing everyday, I ran into a bit of sleep difficulty for a few days also.

[Grasshoppa]

I fall asleep within 10 minutes every night and wake up at exactly the same time in the morning regardless what time I went to sleep.

Funny coincidence about the praying aspect and how it correlates with IQ between the races...Lower IQ races pray more-no surprise there.

oh my *god*.

Regardless, I don't sleep well either. It always takes me a long ass time to fall asleep, but it's health related in my case. Ironically, it's most likely because of a heart related problem (or so I think). I always have to sleep on my right side, and when I'm on my way to sleep sometimes I lose my breath and suddenly wake up. Yeah...it sucks.