Are You Getting To Bed Early Enough? Jawbone Study Tracks Bedtimes Across America

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online

As you go across the United States from east to west, folks tend to go to bed later and later – according to a newly-released report from Jawbone. The report also found that cities and college towns tend to have later bedtimes.

Based on data from Jawbone’s sleep-tracking UP device, the non-scientific study found that Brooklyn residents have the latest average bedtime – 12:07 a.m. Average bedtime for the rest of New York City was also very close to midnight.

As expected – other cities known for nightlife, like Miami and Las Vegas, also had relatively late bedtimes. Some late average bedtimes were also found toward the middle of the country, but these tended to be centered around major universities, like Indiana University and The Ohio University.

Writing about the findings on Jawbone’s blog, company data scientist Tyler Nolan pointed out that amounts of daylight do seem to have an effect on people’s bedtimes.

“On the westerns extremes of time zones, people tend to go to bed later, and on the eastern edges they go to bed earlier,” he wrote.

“The starkest difference can be seen on the Kentucky/Tennessee borders between Eastern Time and Central Time, splitting the states in half,” Nolan added. “The average difference in bedtime across the time zone border is 16 min (excluding Hamilton County, TN, since it contains Chattanooga), and some places it’s as high as 30 minutes.”

The daylight-related findings in the Jawbone report, which was not a scientific study, are consistent with previous research which has indicated circadian rhythms are affected by exposure to daylight. The survey was based on more than 1 million UP wearers. The company said it combined less-populous counties with neighboring counties “to generate significant results.”

If people living in urban areas and college towns are staying out later to drink alcohol – they may be falling asleep quicker when they get home, yet having trouble getting quality sleep once they do pass out.

A study published in January of last year by scientists at the London Sleep Centre discovered that alcohol effectively disrupts REM sleep. The UK researchers found that alcohol may in fact completely remove high-quality REM sleep from the typical sleep cycle.

“This review has for the first time consolidated all the available literature on the immediate effects of alcohol on the sleep of healthy individuals,” said study author Irshaad Ebrahim, medical director at The London Sleep Centre.

Insufficient quality sleep could have a damaging influence on focus, motor skills and memory. Ebrahim said he wants this review to help people know that even short term use of alcoholic beverages does not enhance the quality of sleep, and should avoid using it as a sleep aid. He noted that nursing homes and hospital wards have been known to use alcohol in this way.

“Alcohol on the whole is not useful for improving a whole night´s sleep,” added co-author Chris Idzikowski, of the Edinburgh Sleep Centre. “Sleep may be deeper to start with, but then becomes disrupted. Additionally, that deeper sleep will probably promote snoring and poorer breathing. So, one shouldn´t expect better sleep with alcohol.”

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