Sleep statistics australia — How well do Australians actually sleep? Our team rounds up 16 sleep statistics from the Sleep Health Foundation, ABS and peer-reviewed research that explain the state of Australian sleep.
James on our team has been combing through Sleep Health Foundation surveys, ABS data and peer-reviewed research to put together a single page on how Australians actually sleep. Some of these numbers are surprising — others confirm what every parent of a six-month-old already suspects.
How much we sleep (Sleep statistics australia)
- ~40% of Australian adults regularly experience inadequate sleep — defined as sleeping less than the recommended 7 hours, or sleeping poorly through the night (Sleep Health Foundation, 2019 national survey).
- 14.8% of adults report sleeping less than 5.5 hours per night.
- 7.4 hours is the average self-reported sleep duration for Australian adults on weekdays — slightly under the National Sleep Foundation’s 7–9 hour recommendation.
- 33% of Australians report falling asleep unintentionally during the day at least three times in the past month.
What’s keeping us awake
- 59.4% of Australians use their phone, tablet or laptop in the hour before bed — a known disruptor of sleep onset.
- 44.5% have woken from a notification at least once in the past month.
- 12% of adults experience symptoms of clinical insomnia.
- 7–9% of adults likely have moderate to severe sleep apnea — the majority undiagnosed.
The economic cost
- $66.3 billion — the total annual cost of inadequate sleep in Australia, per Deloitte Access Economics analysis for the Sleep Health Foundation.
- $26.2 billion of that is direct health-system cost.
- $17.9 billion in lost productivity per year is attributable to poor sleep.
Sleep at the extremes
- Children aged 6–13 are recommended 9–11 hours of sleep, but average closer to 8.7 hours on school nights.
- Teenagers need 8–10 hours but average 7 hours on school nights.
- People over 65 sleep an average of 7.1 hours but report waking 2–3 times per night.
- ~30% of Australians snore most nights.
- 1 in 4 Australians say their sleep has worsened over the past five years.
What this means
Hannah on our team likes to point out that the gap between what Australians need and what we get is roughly 30 minutes a night on average — and that 30 minutes compounds into the $66 billion-a-year figure above. Most of that gap is fixable without medication: a consistent wake time, a cooler bedroom, less light after 9pm, and a mattress that doesn’t betray you (which is, conveniently, what we mostly write about).
Sources
- Sleep Health Foundation — Sleep Surveys, 2016, 2019, 2023.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics — National Health Survey.
- Deloitte Access Economics — “Asleep on the Job”.
- National Sleep Foundation — recommended sleep duration guidelines.
For independent guidance on sleep and wellbeing, the Sleep Health Foundation is a good starting point.
