In late 2019, when Research Co. and Glacier Media originally reviewed the nightly habits of Canadians, we learned that many of us were not meeting the recommended guidelines about sleeping seven to nine hours each night. In addition, almost half of us found our heads spinning about dollars and cents late at night, making it harder to end our day.
More than a year has passed since that initial assessment. The COVID-19 pandemic has had an effect on some of the indicators we track, while others are immovable. There may have been an assumption that, in a world where working from home has become the norm for many, we would be sleeping longer due to the absence of a weekday commute.
One of the situations that is different in 2021 revolves around the reasons for Canadians to lie awake at night. More than two in five respondents to our latest survey (43%) say worrying about financial matters made it harder for them to fall asleep at night over the past month. This means that money is still the main source of apprehension that takes away our ability to rest, although it is down six points when compared with 2019.
Conversely, the proportion of Canadians who have lost sleep worrying about health increased from 29% in 2019 to 36% this year. Concerns about health are more prevalent among women (40%) and residents of Atlantic Canada (39%) and Ontario (37%).
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