Sleepless in Britain

Find out the results of GMTV's latest research into the nation's sleeping habits

We've conducted a nationwide survey into the UK's sleeping habits, to find the answers to questions like: just how many hours sleep does everyone get at night and what things keep people awake at night, amongst others.

6338 GMTV viewers answered questions on their sleeping habits, a year after the first survey made headlines in the UK. 

According to the results, a staggering 76% of respondents say they have trouble sleeping. The survey was carried out on GM.TV from the 19th to 25th February.

The survey revealed:

• 85% of viewers don't feel refreshed after a night's sleep, representing a 5% increase on last year's figure.  Regionally, those living in the South West of England, the East of England and Northern Ireland just topped the national average with 86% of respondents from these regions admitting to a poor night's sleep leaving them wanting more. 

• 76% of respondents say they have trouble sleeping - this is an increase of 11% from last year's survey with Northern Ireland topping the 2007 poll at 81%, but Scottish respondents this year showing the biggest increase from 59% (2006 survey) to 79% (2007's survey).

• The majority of viewers surveyed said they slept for only 5 hours per night - 26% of those surveyed said on average they got just 5 hours, this is a reduction on the results of last year's survey where the majority of respondents said they slept for 6 hours a night. 

• More GMTV viewers than ever are dealing with a snoring partner – with 66% of our respondents having a bedmate who snores (last year's figure revealed 52% of those surveyed have a noisy bedfellow). 

• One third of those who responded to the GMTV website survey say they don't sleep in the same bed as their partner (36%), representing a drop in 3% from last year's national figure.

• 32% of GMTV viewers say it takes them an hour of more to drop off after going to bed, this is up 8% on last year's survey results with 36% of this year's respondents from the North East of England struggling the most to drop off straight away

Worriers 

The 2007 survey also revealed we're a nation of worriers with 74% of those GMTV viewers questioned claiming they can't nod off at night because of their worries.  This is a rise of 13% from last year's survey with this year's respondents from Northern Ireland being the biggest worrywarts  - at 79% they are 7% above the Scots (at 72%) whose sleep is the least affected by worrying at night.

Insomniacs

There also seems to be an increase of diagnosed insomniacs with 5% of those answering our survey saying their doctors have confirmed the diagnosis (this represents a rise of 2% from those surveyed last year).  Regionally, the South East is worst affected (at 7%) whilst the Scots are the least (3%).  However, as many as 24% of GMTV viewers questioned said they believed they suffered from insomnia, although they have not seen their doctor about the problem.

Of those viewers who said they woke up in the night, the majority of people woke an average 4 times (31% of respondents, an increase on last year's result of 26%).

Reasons for sleep disturbance

When it comes to noises outside of the bedroom, noisy neighbours are still the single biggest source of disturbed sleep nationally at 14%.  However, those light sleepers in Northern Ireland said the single biggest disturbance for them was animals!

Find out more about sleeping disorders by clicking on the links