Overworked and Underslept? The Changing Sleep Durations of Men and Women in Sweden (1990-2010)

Jeffrey Neilson, Lund University

Sleep deprivation has negative economic and health implications, but it’s prevalence in Sweden, a dual-earner society with increasingly high maternal employment, is unknown. Using three nationally-representative time use surveys from 1990/91, 2000/01, and 2010/11 (N=16,264), this paper analyzes sleep durations and disruptions between waves for employed men and women by life cycle stage. OLS results find a gender-gap in sleep minutes favoring women, and logistic regressions find men at greater odds of short sleep (<6 hours/day). Working 46+ hours weekly and irregular work hours are negatively associated with sleep duration for men and women. Mothers face greater night disruptions than men, and are more likely short sleepers than childless women, except for those with one young child, who sleep similar durations as childless adults. Perhaps contrary to popular belief, this paper uncovers no evidence that working men or women in Sweden are sleeping any less in 2010/11 than previously.