Ranking
How much do Americans sleep at each age?
Americans sleep least in their early 40s (8.65 h a day) and most as teenagers (9.89 h).
Show the data as a table
The full table is below the chart.
| # | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15–19 | 9.89 h/day | 9.49 | 10.84 | 1,301 |
| 2 | 20–24 | 9.57 h/day | 9.27 | 10.27 | 1,499 |
| 3 | 25–29 | 9.23 h/day | 8.88 | 10.02 | 2,248 |
| 4 | 30–34 | 8.84 h/day | 8.52 | 9.58 | 3,037 |
| 5 | 35–39 | 8.75 h/day | 8.44 | 9.5 | 3,361 |
| 6 | 40–44 | 8.65 h/day | 8.31 | 9.45 | 3,069 |
| 7 | 45–49 | 8.75 h/day | 8.37 | 9.63 | 2,657 |
| 8 | 50–54 | 8.68 h/day | 8.36 | 9.44 | 2,722 |
| 9 | 55–59 | 8.81 h/day | 8.53 | 9.45 | 2,972 |
| 10 | 60–64 | 8.83 h/day | 8.65 | 9.24 | 3,642 |
| 11 | 65–69 | 8.95 h/day | 8.84 | 9.22 | 3,992 |
| 12 | 70–74 | 8.97 h/day | 8.92 | 9.09 | 3,592 |
| 13 | 75–79 | 9.14 h/day | 9.12 | 9.16 | 2,704 |
| 14 | 80–84 | 9.25 h/day | 9.27 | 9.2 | 1,682 |
| 15 | 85+ | 9.64 h/day | 9.72 | 9.44 | 1,108 |
What this shows
Daily sleep follows a U-shape over life: 9.89 hours for 15–19-year-olds, a low of 8.65 hours at 40–44, then back up to 9.64 hours at 85 and over. The weekend bonus (weekend minus weekday) is worth more than an hour before 55 and disappears by the late 70s, when every day is a weekend.
ATUS "sleeping" is self-reported and includes naps, dozing and lying awake trying to sleep, so it measures something closer to time in bed than to sleep itself; that is why the national average is about 9 hours. The numbers pool the 2021–2025 surveys (39,586 people) and use BLS's final weights.
Related facts
- FactYour body clock runs latest at about 20In ~25,000 people, the midpoint of sleep on free days drifted later through adolescence and peaked at about age 20 (19.5 for women, 20.9 for men) before moving steadily earlier for the rest of life.Confidence: Solid
- FactFor over a century, experts have told kids to sleep about 37 minutes more than they doAcross 32 sets of children's sleep recommendations published from 1897 to 2009, recommended sleep exceeded children's actual sleep in 144 of 173 matched comparisons (83%), by 37 minutes on average. Recommendations fell by 0.71 min a year, almost exactly as fast as actual sleep (0.73 min a year).Confidence: Single study
- FactStarting school 55 minutes later gave Seattle teens 34 more minutes of sleepAfter Seattle moved high-school start time from 07:50 to 08:45, students' median wake-up on school days moved 44 minutes later and their median school-night sleep grew by 34 minutes, measured with wrist actigraphy.Confidence: Single study