Sleep Anxiety: What Three Recent US Surveys Show
Sleep anxiety explained through APA and AASM surveys: how many adults feel more anxious, which worries cost sleep, and small things to try tonight.
Ayse Tara, BSc in Nursing
10/14/20266 min read
Sleep anxiety is the worry that shows up when the lights go out, either about sleep itself or about everything else that waited for the quiet. It feels personal, but the numbers say it is widely shared. Three recent US surveys, two from the American Psychiatric Association and one from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, show how common anxiety is and which worries cost people sleep. If these nights sound familiar, Hypnagogia-Pass is a new bedtime practice you can try tonight. Below, we look at what the surveys show.
Key takeaways
In April 2026, 48% of US adults said they felt more anxious than the year before, up from 43% in 2025.
Adults ranked stress first and sleep second among lifestyle factors that affect their mental health in 2026 (48% and 38%).
In a June 2025 survey of 2,007 adults, money worries cost the most sleep (78%), followed by work (65%).
None of these surveys measured sleep anxiety itself, so the numbers describe the setting around it, not a diagnosis.
What is sleep anxiety?
Sleep anxiety is a popular term, not a formal diagnosis. People use it for two things that often travel together. One is worry about sleep itself: dreading the night, watching the clock, calculating how many hours are left. The other is anxious thinking that arrives at bedtime about money, work, family or the news, the kind of racing thoughts at night many people know well.
Both have the same shape, and many people recognise it at once. The body is tired, but the mind is on guard. That is why the question that matters is less “why can’t I sleep?” and more “what is my mind still working on?” The surveys below give a picture of what many minds are working on right now.
What the surveys say about anxiety and sleep
The APA polls: more people feel anxious
The American Psychiatric Association polls about 2,200 US adults each year on mental health. In April 2024, 43% said they felt more anxious than the year before, up from 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022 (APA, 2024). In April 2026, 48% said they felt more anxious than a year earlier, up from 43% in 2025 (APA, 2026).
Sleep appears in these polls as a factor in mental health. In 2024, 53% of adults named stress and 40% named sleep among the lifestyle factors that most affect their mental health. In 2026 the order held: stress at 48% and sleep at 38%. Stress and sleep sit at the top of the list both years.
The AASM survey: which worries cost sleep
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine asked 2,007 US adults in June 2025 which worries had cost them sleep. Money led at 78%. Work followed at 65%, crime or violence at 61%, job security and politics at 56% each, and artificial intelligence and emerging technologies at 39% (AASM, 2025).
Notice how ordinary the list is. These are not rare fears. They are the bills, the inbox and the headlines that most people carry into bed. Politics and the news have a way of turning into heated conversations too, and when one of those keeps replaying, why your mind replays an argument explains the loop. Worries like these rarely have an answer at midnight. They need a plan in daylight and a way to set them down at night.
What the numbers do and do not tell us
Surveys are good at showing how many people say something. They are less good at showing why. All three were self-reported, so they capture how people describe their worries, not a clinical measurement of anxiety or sleep.
They also did not ask about sleep anxiety directly. The APA polls measure general anxiety and factors in mental health. The AASM survey measures worries that cost sleep. Putting them side by side gives a fair picture of the background, but it is not proof that one thing causes the other.
Still, the pattern is consistent across all three: worry is common, anxiety is reported more often in the latest poll than in earlier ones, and sleep is one of the first places people feel it.
How sleep anxiety connects to racing thoughts
When anxious thinking speeds up in bed, it becomes racing thoughts: one worry pulling the next. Cognitive shuffling for sleep works the other way round. Instead of answering the worry, it hands the mind a string of neutral, unrelated pictures, so each worry has nothing to connect to next.
That is a useful way to read the survey numbers. Money, work and the news cannot be solved in bed, but the mind can be given a gentler task for a few minutes. Picturing random objects is not easy for everyone, though, and that gap is part of why we built Hypnagogia-Pass. The drifting stage that follows is called hypnagogia, and it is where the day’s thoughts loosen on their own.
Something to try tonight
If anxious thoughts are waiting for you at bedtime, try Hypnagogia-Pass tonight. It is a new practice, inspired by cognitive shuffling and serial diverse imagining, and it gives your mind a calm, repeatable path toward a drifting state, instead of a worry to solve. Lie down, follow its steps, and let your mind wander.
Give it a few nights before deciding how it feels. A new routine needs a little repetition, and each night is a fresh start. If a night does not go the way you hoped, simply try again tomorrow.
If you would like a no-screen version as well, here is a simple one:
Write tomorrow’s one or two worries on paper earlier in the evening, so they have somewhere to wait.
Dim the lights and put your phone out of reach.
Lie down, close your eyes and take three slow breaths.
Your sleep anxiety questions, answered
What is sleep anxiety?
It is a popular term for worry that gathers around sleep, either about sleep itself or about everything that waited for the quiet. It is not a formal diagnosis. Most people notice it as a tired body with an alert mind. The idea is to ease the alertness, not to fight it.
Is sleep anxiety the same as insomnia?
Not exactly, though they can feed each other. Insomnia describes trouble falling or staying asleep, while sleep anxiety describes the worry that gathers around it. A hard night can create dread about the next one, and dread can make that night harder too. Breaking the loop usually starts with lowering the pressure.
Why does worry feel louder at night?
A likely reason is that the day’s noise is gone. With fewer tasks and screens to hold your attention, unfinished thoughts come forward. The surveys fit this picture: money, work and the news are what people report losing sleep over. It is a pattern, and patterns can be eased. Even small shifts, like the clocks changing, can unsettle it, as our daylight saving time sleep tips describe.
What can I do in bed when the worry will not stop?
Give the mind something gentle to follow instead of something to solve. A few slow breaths, a list of tomorrow’s tasks written earlier, or a picture-based routine like Hypnagogia-Pass can all help. Try one method for several nights, so you can tell whether it suits you. If you are lying awake right now, start with what to try when you cannot sleep.
Are more people anxious now than before?
In the APA polls, yes. The share who felt more anxious than the year before was 32% in 2022, 37% in 2023 and 43% in 2024, then 48% in 2026. These are self-reported answers in national polls, so they show how people feel, not a clinical count.
Know someone who's awake right now?
If you have a friend you have recently talked with about sleep anxiety and the worries that keep people up at night, or someone you think needs this information, send them this article. It brings them what the science says, in plain words.
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If trouble sleeping lasts for weeks, or if racing thoughts come with other symptoms that worry you, please talk with a doctor. This article is general information, not medical advice, and Hypnagogia-Pass has not been tested in a clinical trial.
