We spend around a third of our lives asleep – but how much do we know about how our sleeping habits compare to others?

Thanks to Our Future Health participants, we’ve been able to compare the sleep habits of almost 2 million people.

It’s one of the largest ever analyses of sleep conducted in the UK – and it reveals differences depending on sex, age, and even income.

The surprising difference between men and women

While everyone needs different amounts of sleep, the NHS says that most adults need 7-9 hours of sleep per night on average. Habitually sleeping too little, or too much, is associated with higher risks of common diseases, including type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

When we analysed self-reported data from 1,978,713 participants’ health and lifestyle questionnaires, we found that 73.0% of men and 70.6% of women say they sleep 7-9 hours in every 24 hours. More people slept less than 7 hours (24.1% of men and 25.8% of women) than those who slept more than 9 hours (1.5% of men and 2.2% of women).

So far, so similar. However, the habits of men and women start to diverge when you chart the amount of sleep they get by age.

Participants in their late teens and 20s report the most sleep on average. Those in their 30s and 40s report progressively less, with the lowest average among people in their early 50s (just under 7 hours in every 24 hours).

While women under the age of 50 sleep more than men the same age, the pattern reverses from the mid-50s onwards.

Among older participants, men’s average reported sleep duration generally increases, exceeding 7.5 hours in their late 80s. In contrast, women’s average sleep duration remains relatively constant. 55-year-old women and 75-year-old women are getting the same amount of sleep on average (6 hours 58 minutes). 85-year-old women report a similar amount (7 hours 2 minutes).

The snoring and snoozing divide

As well as reporting the number of hours they sleep across 24 hours, our participants also answer questions about snoring and napping.

Their data highlights further differences between the habits of men and women.

Men are more likely than women to report receiving complaints about their snoring. 38.7% of men say they receive complaints, compared with 23.6% of women.

Men are also more likely to nap during the day than women. 43.7% of men say they nap “sometimes” or “usually”, compared with 36.1% of women.

When we break the data down by age groups, we see that men are more likely to nap than women from the age of 40-49 upwards.

Income and sleep

We also analysed the data according to income, geographical region, and ethnicity.

Participants from higher-income households report getting more sleep. Those with annual household incomes above £100,000 report an average of 7 hours 14 minutes, compared with 7 hours 3 minutes among those earning £18,000–£30,999.

However, it’s worth noting that the variation here is small, with approximately 10 minutes difference between the highest and lowest groups.

Geography and sleep

Similarly small variations can be seen between different regions of the UK. On average, participants in the South West sleep the most, while those in the North East sleep the least – but the difference is only 6-7 minutes.

Ethnicity and sleep

When we analyse the data by ethnicity, a more pronounced trend emerges.  Black participants report sleeping the least (6 hours 44 minutes in every 24 hours), while White participants report the most (7 hours 9 minutes). That equates to approximately 25 minutes difference.  

Get advice on improving your sleep

Do you struggle to sleep? The NHS offers online advice, including how to improve your sleep hygiene – the small habits and routines associated with how you sleep. The page also includes support for insomnia.

Some of our partner charities also offer sleep support tailored around specific diseases, including Parkinson’s UK, Asthma + Lung UK, Alzheimer’s Society, and Action for ME.

How researchers are using our sleep data

Our participants’ data is already being used by researchers who are interested in the health effects of sleep.

For example:

• Researchers at the University of Edinburgh are investigating how lifestyle factors including sleep contribute to physical health problems.

• Researchers at the University of Manchester are looking into the risk of asthma in night shift workers. They hope to find out whether biological sex and body clock play a role in the condition.

You can see all the research studies that are currently analysing our participants’ data on the Health Data Research Gateway.

Data tables

Percentage of Our Future Health participants getting more or less than the recommended 7-9 hours sleep per night, by region

	<7 hours		7-9 hours		>9 hours
	% Females	% Males	% Females	% Males	% Females	% Males
South West	24.2	22.6	73.5	76.1	2.3	1.3
South East	24.4	22.8	73.6	75.8	2.0	1.4
London	23.8	22.3	74.4	76.4	1.7	1.3
Wales	28.1	25.8	69.0	72.4	2.9	1.7
West Midlands	27.7	25.8	70.0	72.6	2.3	1.6
East Midlands	27.1	25.9	70.7	72.4	2.2	1.6
East	25.6	24.4	72.1	74.1	2.1	1.5
Northern Ireland	28.6	25.7	68.3	72.7	3.0	1.6
North West	27.1	24.9	70.6	73.4	2.3	1.7
Yorkshire and the Humber	26.1	25.0	71.4	73.2	2.5	1.8
North East	29.1	27.2	68.3	71.0	2.6	1.8
Scotland	27.0	25.0	70.5	73.0	2.5	2.0

Mean sleep duration in hours by income

Income in £	Mean sleep duration in hours
<18k	7h 4m
18k-30999	7h 3m
31k-51999	7h 7m
52k-100k	7h 10m
>100k	7h 14m

Mean sleep duration in hours by ethnicity

Ethnicity	Mean sleep duration in hours
White	7h 9m
Asian	7h 3m
Mixed	7h 1m
Other	7h 3m
Black	6h 44m

Mean hours sleep by age and sex

Age	Female	Male
18	7h 37m	7h 25m
19	7h 43m	7h 32m
20	7h 40m	7h 26m
21	7h 42m	7h 25m
22	7h 37m	7h 22m
23	7h 35m	7h 19m
24	7h 32m	7h 17m
25	7h 29m	7h 16m
26	7h 29m	7h 17m
27	7h 28m	7h 14m
28	7h 24m	7h 15m
29	7h 22m	7h 14m
30	7h 20m	7h 12m
31	7h 17m	7h 11m
32	7h 14m	7h 09m
33	7h 13m	7h 07m
34	7h 11m	7h 04m
35	7h 08m	7h 04m
36	7h 08m	7h 02m
37	7h 08m	7h 01m
38	7h 08m	7h 01m
39	7h 07m	7h 00m
40	7h 07m	6h 59m
41	7h 08m	6h 59m
42	7h 07m	6h 59m
43	7h 07m	6h 59m
44	7h 07m	6h 59m
45	7h 06m	6h 58m
46	7h 05m	6h 58m
47	7h 04m	6h 58m
48	7h 05m	6h 58m
49	7h 04m	6h 58m
50	7h 02m	6h 57m
51	7h 01m	6h 57m
52	6h 59m	6h 56m
53	6h 59m	6h 57m
54	6h 57m	6h 58m
55	6h 58m	6h 58m
56	6h 57m	6h 59m
57	6h 58m	6h 59m
58	6h 59m	7h 00m
59	6h 59m	7h 02m
60	7h 01m	7h 05m
61	7h 01m	7h 05m
62	7h 02m	7h 07m
63	7h 02m	7h 07m
64	7h 02m	7h 08m
65	7h 02m	7h 10m
66	7h 04m	7h 11m
67	7h 04m	7h 13m
68	7h 02m	7h 12m
69	7h 01m	7h 14m
70	7h 01m	7h 13m
71	7h 01m	7h 14m
72	7h 00m	7h 13m
73	6h 59m	7h 14m
74	6h 58m	7h 14m
75	6h 58m	7h 14m
76	6h 59m	7h 16m
77	6h 58m	7h 16m
78	6h 59m	7h 18m
79	7h 00m	7h 17m
80	6h 58m	7h 21m
81	7h 01m	7h 20m
82	7h 00m	7h 23m
83	6h 57m	7h 23m
84	7h 04m	7h 27m
85	7h 02m	7h 24m
86	7h 03m	7h 31m
87	7h 05m	7h 31m
88	7h 13m	7h 28m
89	7h 19m	7h 37m
90	7h 34m	7h 38m

Percentage of participants that nap during the day by sex

	Female	Male
Never/rarely	63.91%	56.28%
Sometimes	31.09%	35.36%
Usually	4.69%	7.89%
No Answer	0.30%	0.47%

Percentage of participants that receive complaints about snoring by sex

Complaints received?	Male	Female
No	53.8%	67.4%
Yes	38.7%	23.6%
NA	7.5%	9.0%

Percentage of participants who receive snoring complaints (standardised by sex)

Age in years	Receive complaints about snoring	Percentage (standardised by sex)
18-29	No	77.12%
18-29	Yes	22.88%
30-39	No	70.64%
30-39	Yes	29.36%
40-49	No	64.13%
40-49	Yes	35.87%
50-59	No	59.77%
50-59	Yes	40.23%
60-69	No	62.20%
60-69	Yes	37.80%
70-79	No	70.79%
70-79	Yes	29.21%
80+	No	82.68%
80+	Yes	17.32%

Percentage of participants who nap by age group (standardised by sex)

	Percentage of participants (standardised by sex)
Age in years	Never/rarely	Sometimes	Usually
18-29	63.61%	31.02%	5.38%
30-39	67.27%	28.94%	3.78%
40-49	66.21%	29.61%	4.18%
50-59	63.48%	31.68%	4.84%
60-69	59.12%	34.47%	6.41%
70-79	51.20%	38.81%	9.98%
80+	39.50%	42.55%	17.95%

Note to researchers

Survey estimates are influenced by how participants are recruited, how questions are asked and how outcomes are defined and measured. As these methods vary between surveys, figures from Our Future Health and other sources should not be treated as directly comparable. Any differences should be interpreted with appropriate caution.

Our Future Health is the UK’s largest health research cohort and is designed to reflect the diversity of the UK population. One strength of Our Future Health is that the scale and breadth of recruitment provide unprecedented numbers of participants from communities historically under-represented in health research.

The participant cohort is susceptible to selection bias, so participation is not yet fully representative by age, sex, ethnicity, deprivation, and geography. However, our staged recruitment strategy is designed to address the imbalance as far as possible, and we are already more demographically representative than other cohorts such as the UK Biobank. We are developing sampling weights which will enable researchers to correct for ways in which our volunteer cohort remains unrepresentative of the general population.