Newsroom2024-10-01T14:35:33-05:00

Newsroom

Our team is available to help journalists who are seeking a sleep expert or looking for information about sleep and sleep disorders, the medical specialty of sleep medicine, or sleep and circadian science. Please contact us to request information or to coordinate an interview with an AASM spokesperson.

media@aasm.org
630-737-9700

Media representatives must register with the APSS public relations office before receiving press registration for SLEEP 2024, the 38th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS), which will be held June 1 – 5 in Houston. If you’re interested in covering the SLEEP meeting, please email media@aasm.org. More information about eligibility, registration, and access, is available in the SLEEP annual meeting press room.

American Academy of Sleep Medicine

  • Established in 1975
  • Combined membership of 12,000 individuals and accredited member sleep centers
  • More than 2,600 AASM-accredited sleep centers across the U.S.
  • AASM fact sheet

Sleep Medicine

  • Sleep medicine is a medical specialty with more than 80 fellowship training programs in the U.S.
  • The biennial board-certification exam in sleep medicine is offered by six member boards of the American Board of Medical Specialties: American Board of Internal Medicine, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, American Board of Pediatrics, American Board of Otolaryngology, American Board of Family Medicine, American Board of Anesthesiology. (Starting in November 2023, the exam will be offered annually.)
  • There are more than 5,600 board-certified sleep medicine physicians in the U.S. (ABMS, 2021)

Adult Sleep Duration

  • The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that adults should sleep 7 or more hours per night on a regular basis to promote optimal health. (AASM, 2015)
  • About 28% of U.S. adults report getting an average of less than 7 hours of sleep per night. (CDC, 2020)
  • Healthy sleep duration varies among states. The percentage of adults who reported sleeping at least 7 hours was lowest at 56.1% in Hawaii and highest at 71.6% in South Dakota. (CDC, 2016)
  • The age-adjusted mean sleep duration of U.S. adults was 7.18 hours in a 24-hour period in 2012. (CDC, 2015)
  • In 2012 about 70.1 million U.S. adults reported sleeping 6 hours or less. (CDC, 2015)
  • Since 1985 the percentage of U.S. adults sleeping 6 hours or less has increased by 31%. (CDC, 2015)
  • Poll data show that U.S. adults averaged 6.8 hours of sleep at night in 2013, down more than an hour from 1942. (Gallup, 2013)
  • The percentage of U.S. adults who report that they usually sleep 7 or more hours at night decreased from 84% in 1942 to 59% in 2013. (Gallup, 2013)

Teen Sleep Duration

  • The American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommends that teens should sleep 8 to 10 hours on a regular basis to promote optimal health. (AASM, 2016)
  • Nearly 78% of high school students report sleeping less than 8 hours on an average school night. (CDC, 2019)

Sleep Disorders

  • 50 to 70 million Americans have a chronic sleep-wake disorder (The National Academies, 2006)
  • There are more than 50 sleep-wake disorders classified in the International Classification of Sleep Disorders, Third Edition (AASM, 2014)

Insomnia

  • About 30 to 35% of the population has transient insomnia symptoms. (AASM: ICSD-3, 2014)
  • The one-year prevalence of short-term insomnia disorder (less than 3 months) among adults appears to be in the range of 15% to 20%. (AASM: ICSD-3, 2014)
  • The full clinical syndrome of chronic insomnia disorder (at least 3 months) occurs in about 10% of the population. (AASM: ICSD-3, 2014)
  • Health care spending on insomnia was $5.1 billion in 2013. (JAMA, 2016)
  • In 2020, 6.3% of adults took any sleep medication to help them fall asleep or stay asleep every day in the last 30 days, 2.1% took medication most days, 10.0% took medication some days, and 81.6% never took medication. (CDC, 2023)
  • About 4% of U.S. adults aged 20 and over used prescription sleep aids in the past month. (CDC, 2013)
  • Chronic insomnia is associated with an average loss of 45-54 days in workplace productivity, resulting in estimated annual losses in national gross-domestic product ranging from 0.64% to 1.31%, or approximately $1.8 to $207.5 billion. (RAND, 2023)
  • The total costs of insomnia in aggregate exceed $100 billion USD per year, with the majority being spent on indirect costs such as poorer workplace performance, increased health care utilization, and increased accident risk. (Sleep Medicine Reviews, 2016)
  • Annual U.S. losses in work performance associated with insomnia equal to 252.7 million days and $63.2 billion after controlling for comorbidity. (Sleep, 2011)

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

  • Nearly 30 million adults in the U.S. have obstructive sleep apnea, and about 23.5 million of them are undiagnosed. (AASM, 2016)
  • Undiagnosed OSA costs the U.S. approximately $149.6 billion annually. (AASM, 2016)
  • Obstructive sleep apnea patients who were adherent with positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy had a 25.7% reduction in health care utilization composite score. (Sleep Medicine, 2017)
  • Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea with PAP therapy is estimated to reduce the 10-year risk of motor vehicle crashes by 52%, the 10-year expected number of heart attacks by 49%, and the 10-year risk of stroke by 31%. (Sleep, 2011)

Drowsy Driving

  • Each year in the U.S. drowsy driving causes an average of 328,000 motor vehicle accidents, including 6,400 fatal crashes. (AAA Foundation, 2014)
  • Nearly 1 in 3 drivers (32 percent) say they have driven when they were so tired that they had a hard time keeping their eyes open in the past 30 days. (AAA Foundation, 2016)
  • Drivers who usually sleep for less than 5 hours daily had 5.4 times the crash rate of drivers who reported that they usually slept for 7 hours or more. (AAA Foundation, 2016)

About the Survey

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine commissioned an online survey of 2,006 adults in the U.S. The overall margin of error fell within +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95 percent. Fieldwork took place between May 16-24, 2024. Atomik Research is an independent market research agency.

About the Survey

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine commissioned an online survey of 2,010 adults in the U.S. The overall margin of error fell within +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95 percent. Fieldwork took place between Feb. 17-24, 2022. Atomik Research is an independent market research agency.

About the Survey

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) commissioned an online survey of 2,006 adults in the U.S. The margin of error fell within +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95%. The fieldwork took place from March 11-15, 2021. Atomik Research is an independent market research agency.

About the Survey

The July 2020 Sleep Prioritization Survey involved 2,007 adult participants. The sample consisted of 1,005 parents with children between the ages of five and 18 years old. The margin of error is +/- 2 percentage points with a confidence interval of 95 percent. Atomik Research, an independent market research agency, conducted the survey.

Published Paper Title
1/2024 Permanent standard time is the optimal choice for health and safety: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement
10/2022 Enhancing public health and safety by diagnosing and treating obstructive sleep apnea in the transportation industry: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement
8/2022 Age and weight considerations for the use of continuous positive airway pressure therapy in pediatric populations: an American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement

10/2021 Sleep is essential to health: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine position statement
10/2020 Daylight Saving Time: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
5/2020 Sleep, Fatigue and Burnout Among Physicians: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
4/2020 Artificial Intelligence in Sleep Medicine: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
11/2019 Chronic Opioid Therapy and Sleep: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
12/2018 Clinical Use of a Home Sleep Apnea Test: An Updated American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
7/2018 Polysomnography for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Should Include Arousal-Based Scoring: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
5/2018 Consumer Sleep Technology: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
4/2018 Medical Cannabis and the Treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
4/2018 The Risk of Fatigue and Sleepiness in the Ridesharing Industry: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
11/2017 Appropriate Use of Objective Tests for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (American Medical Association Resolution H-35.963)
4/2017 Delaying Middle School and High School Start Times Promotes Student Health and Performance: An American Academy of Sleep Medicine Position Statement
11/2015 Confronting Drowsy Driving: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine Perspective

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