Feeling a little tired today, like you didn't get enough sleep last night? Maybe you have your job to blame. Sleepy's, the chain of mattress stores with an irritatingly memorable jingle, analyzed data from the National Health Interview Survey done by the CDC and determined the most and least sleep deprived occupations. The results may surprise and delight you.
The number one most sleep deprived workers are home health aides, who catch only six hours and fifty-seven minutes of z's on an average night. Lawyers trail in second by only three minutes. The top three and four spots hold some obvious ones: police officers and doctors/paramedics. Number five is economists, which is a bit odd. What are they doing up so late? Then the list is rounded out with social workers, computer programmers, financial analysts, plant operators, and, last but not least, secretaries. The funny thing is that secretaries only get an average of 11 minutes more sleep a night than home health aides.
On the other end of the spectrum, forest and logging workers were the most well-rested profession. They averaged seven hours 20 minutes a night—not really that much more in practical terms than those poor home health aides. Here's the rest of the well-rested list, in order of most to least: hairstylists, sales representatives, bartenders, construction workers, athletes, landscapers, engineers, aircraft pilots (thank God!), and teachers. Teachers only get three minutes a night more than secretaries. So really, the lesson from this data is that everyone, no matter their profession, is getting roughly seven hours of sleep a night—which is an hour less than doctors recommend. So maybe if we all protest at once that the workday should be one hour shorter so that we can get more sleep, every employer in the country will be forced to meet our demands? Yeah. Dream on.
10 Most Sleep-Deprived Careers [LiveScience]
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