Forget Seattle, They’re Sleepless In Sweden

One in two Swedes are struggling to sleep, according to data from a Statista Consumer Insights survey.

The new data casts light on the prevalence of the problem in different countries, affecting more than a third of respondents in 17 out of the 20 populations surveyed.

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Respondents were asked if they had experienced a sleep disorder in the 12 months prior to the survey. 

As Statista’s Ann Fleck reports, in all of the countries included on the chart, women were more likely to have experienced a sleep disorder than men – with many seeing a 9 to 10 percentage point difference between the two. 

This was the case in Sweden, where 56 percent of women had experienced a sleep disorder in the past year versus 46 percent of men. 

In the U.S., there was a 6 percentage point difference (39 percent women to 33 percent men).

According to the Sleep Foundation, women and people assigned female at birth are more likely to experience insomnia. Researchers say this is the result of a combination of sex-based factors such as hormone production as well as gender-based differences, which “may be driven by social and cultural disparities”.

Predispositions to certain physical or mental health issues are also cited as possible factors believed to lead to higher rates of sleeplessness in women.