Sleep problems are widespread in the US, affecting adults and kids alike, but a new survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds that single moms not only sleep less than any other demographic, they also have a harder time falling and staying asleep and they are more likely to wake up not feeling rested most mornings, reports the Los Angeles Times. "These results are not surprising," one sleep scientist not involved in the research tells Live Science. "People tend to sacrifice sleep when they have competing priorities, such as work, family responsibilities and social obligations." Women in general seem to battle sleep issues more than men, and this starts early—right around a girl's first period, he adds.
But single moms wage the biggest battles. About 44% get less than seven hours of sleep a night, compared to 38% of single dads, 31% of women in two-parent families and 30% of women without kids. Interestingly, 10% of women without children say they regularly use meds to fall asleep—more than any other group in this survey, reports PBS. Kristi Williams, a sociologist at Ohio State University, tells the Huffington Post that sleep and other problems for single moms loom larger for society as a whole now that 41% of all births in the US occur to unmarried women. "The rise of single parenthood and non-marital fertility is arguably one of the most significant demographic trends in contemporary society," she says. (Apparently a wife's insomnia is harder on a marriage than a husband's.)
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