Anxiety over politics and the 2020 presidential race is robbing U.S. citizens of their sleep, disrupting an average of 130 nights annually, according to an unusual survey of the issues with U.S. sleep habits.
Not only do people report losing sleep over politics and hot-button issues, such as gun control and even tax reform, many said their “dreams” feature President Trump, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Trump is dreamed about most frequently, 89% of those who have political dreams, said the survey from the Sleep Judge, provided to Secrets today.
But those dreams may not be happy. The survey found Democrats dream of Republican leaders and Republicans of Democratic leaders. For example, of Democrats who reported political dreams, 97% said they included Trump.
Republicans, meanwhile topped Democrats in dreaming about Pelosi and Clinton.
“General concern over the political climate in America disrupted sleep an average of 130 nights over the past year, accounting for more than 26 lost hours of sleep,” said the survey.
It found that Trump voters lost a bit more sleep than those who voted Democrat in 2016.
And even which cable station people get their news from had an effect.
MSNBC viewers average two nights of poor sleep per week due to political concerns, and 36% of CNN and MSNBC viewers feel stressed about politics, more than consumers of any other mainstream media, the Sleep Judge told us.
The Sleep Judge, which offers sleeping and anti-snoring aids, suggested that as the campaign moves into the summer, the stress could get worse.
“Americans are already managing the physical, mental, and emotional burdens of a particularly intense time in the political landscape no matter which side of the aisle you happen to sit on, and it’s possible things may only get more extreme before they get better,” said the survey analysis.
