Americans not sleeping easy -- or enough

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WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- Sixty percent of Americans ages 13-64 say they experience a sleep problem every night or almost every night, a U.S. survey indicates.

The Sleep in America poll released by the National Sleep Foundation Monday found 43 percent of Americans ages 13-64 say they rarely or never get a good night's sleep on weeknights. About 15 percent of U.S. adults ages 19-64, and 7 percent of those 13-18 years old, say they sleep less than 6 hours on weeknights, the survey says.

Almost everyone surveyed, 95 percent, said they use some type of electronics -- like a television, computer, video game or cellphone -- at least a few nights a week within the hour before bed, the survey indicates.

"Over the last 50 years, we've seen how television viewing has grown to be a near constant before bed, and now we are seeing new information technologies such as laptops, cellphones, video games and music devices rapidly gaining the same status," Lauren Hale at Stony Brook University Medical Center said in a statement. "The higher use of these potentially more sleep-disruptive technologies among younger generations may have serious consequences for physical health, cognitive development and other measures of well-being."

The survey of 1,508 Americans ages of 13-64 was conducted by WB&A Market Research. The margin of error is 2.5 percentage points.