There is an abundance of good advice on how to get a better night’s sleep – power down and avoid blue light before bed, practice mindfulness, eat a healthy diet and get plenty of exercise. However, could the city you are living in also be impacting your sleep quality? Sleep Cycle, the world’s most popular sleep tracking application, today released a report in collaboration with Sleep Foundation, the leading source for research-based, medically reviewed sleep health information, to explore just that.
Key findings identified in the report include:
- Seattle, WA, and Corpus Christi, TX were identified as the best and worst cities for sleep, respectively
- Several of the top 10 best cities for sleep earned the best sleep quality rating, strong snore score, have higher percentages of residents with health insurance, and relatively lower risks for obesity, diabetes, and mental health conditions
- Eight of the 10 worst cities for sleep had the highest risk for obesity, and nine showed the highest risk of diabetes and mental health conditions
- The western U.S. region ranks best in all categories, with the Midwest ranking second, northeast ranking third, and south fourth
The report’s findings support the insight that sleep health, physical health and mental health are interdependent elements of our overall well-being.
Kristen Knutson, Ph.D., professor of neurology at Northwestern University and sleep expert, says, “Sleep has such wide-ranging effects on health, it should be considered part of a healthy lifestyle along with diet and exercise.”
To determine the best and worst cities for sleep, Sleep Cycle and Sleep Foundation relied on three primary metrics: sleep quality rating, snore score, and Center for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Census health data. Sleep Cycle’s sleep quality rating is calculated by measuring the user’s amount of time spent in bed, amount of time spent in deep sleep, the frequency of motion and intensity of movement, and the number of times the app registers the user is fully awake. The Sleep Cycle snore score was calculated by monitoring users’ phone sensors to gather snore data, such as snore length and intensity, and how closely the user’s snoring is related to restless movement. Snoring is a characteristic of sleep that can influence the quality of a person’s sleep.
The resulting sleep score was calculated with raw data provided by Sleep Cycle and with data extracted by Sleep Foundation from the CDC and U.S. Census Health Data. Sleep Cycle tracks sleep patterns and sleep health directly from users via smart devices or smartphones. Since the data is directly from anonymous users, Sleep Cycle’s Sleep Quality and Snore Score were the foundation for this analysis and make up most of the weight for the overall Sleep Score. Sleep Foundation also factored in health concerns related to lack of sleep – issues like obesity, leisure time, diabetes, etc. These additional health factors rounded out the sleep score and can help provide context for why a certain city may have more or less sleep quality. Each city’s sleep quality and snore score, provided by Sleep Cycle, is augmented with U.S. Census and CDC data to provide a more complete picture.
“Sleep is a critical component of our physical and mental well-being and now, more than ever, the world needs a better understanding of the role sleep plays in our everyday lives, as well as actionable resources to improve it,” said Sleep Cycle Chief Executive Officer, Carl Johan Hederoth. “This collaborative report provides the ability to create content leveraging our user database and analytic capabilities with input from Sleep Foundation’s impressive roster of thought leaders.”
Sleep Cycle and Sleep Foundation are committed to bringing new impactful insights to the sleep health conversation and ensure sleep remains a focal point in public health discussions.
To review the report in full, please visit https://www.sleepfoundation.org/best-worst-cities-for-sleep.
About Sleep Cycle
With millions of active users and over 400 million nights analyzed in more than 150 countries, Sleep Cycle is the leading sleep tracker application and one of the most widely used solutions worldwide to improve sleep health. Sleep Cycle’s mission is to improve global health by empowering people to sleep better. Since its launch in 2009, Sleep Cycle has helped millions of people understand their sleeping habits and improve their sleep. Sleep Cycle is one of the world’s most comprehensive sources for statistics frequently contributing to sleep research by collaborating with renowned universities and research facilities worldwide. Sleep Cycle is regularly featured in notable media outlets covering the product and the company’s released Sleep reports. Sleep Cycle is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker SLEEP. The head office is located in Gothenburg, Sweden and the company has 37 employees.
About Sleep Foundation
Sleep Foundation (SleepFoundation.org), a OneCare Media company, has a mission to improve health and well-being through sleep health and information. A premier sleep destination, Sleep Foundation boasts a medical advisory board of physicians, psychologists, academic researchers, as well as a seasoned team of product and materials science experts to elevate both health information and sleep product review content for the general public. For more, visit www.sleepfoundation.org.
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