White People Have Another Key Advantage That No Other Race Has, Survey Finds

About 65% of the over 444,000 Americans surveyed by the CDC for their new report said they get at least seven hours of sleep per night, the amount widely recommended by experts.

When exploring the correlation between race and sleep, the CDC found that non-Hispanic whites were the most likely, 66.8%, to get seven or more hours of sleep, notes the Cut.

Hispanics were a close second at 66%, while 62.5% of Asians and 59.6% of Native Americans reported regular getting healthy sleep durations.

Black people were near the bottom in reporting at least seven hours of sleep, at 54.3%, and multiracial people were the least likely of all racial groups to report healthy sleep durations, at 53.6%.

“What is likely going on is probably explained by demographic composition,” Dr. Lauren Hale, a family and preventative medicine professor at Stony Brook University explained to NPR. “Densely populated neighborhoods might have more noise and light. African Americans compared to whites are more likely to live in those neighborhoods.”

She added: “There are concerns about racism, not being able to feed one’s family, relatives being incarcerated,” she says. “One needs to feel safe. If you don’t have that internal feeling of security whether financial, physical or emotional, it will be harder to fall asleep.”

In terms of geography, the study found that overall those living in the western U.S. were more likely to get at least seven hours of sleep than those living in Hawaii and states in the southeastern U.S.