Want To Get A Great Night’s Sleep? Head To South Dakota

It’s well-known that Americans are not getting enough sleep. But some parts of the United States do it better than others. If you bed down in Minnesota, South Dakota or Colorado, you’re likely getting seven or more hours a night. But you’re less in luck if you live in Hawaii, where only 56 percent of adults get enough rest.

Not that the rest of the country is doing much better. Of the roughly 444,000 Americans polled, about 65 percent got more than seven hours a night according to the study, which was published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Race and ethnicity also tend to correlate with sleep. Nobody sleeps better than white people, according to the CDC report; 54 percent of non-Hispanic blacks get sufficient sleep, about 12 percent fewer than whites. “What is likely going on is probably explained by demographic composition,” Hale says. “Densely populated neighborhoods might have more noise and light. African-Americans compared to whites are more likely to live in those neighborhoods.”

On top of that, Hale says there are a lot of stressors that nonwhite communities disproportionately feel that can influence sleep. “There are concerns about racism, not being able to feed one’s family, relatives being incarcerated,” she says. “One needs to feel safe. If you don’t have that internal feeling of security whether financial, physical or emotional, it will be harder to fall asleep.”

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