Thanksgiving Mystery – Do You Sleep Better or Worse?
How well do you sleep on Thanksgiving? What about the days leading up to and right after the holiday?
It’s a Thanksgiving mystery. Do we sleep better or worse during the time we in North America celebrate coming together, abundance and gratitude. We found conflicting science.
There are a lot of theories and myths about feeling sleepy on the day.
Is it because you’ve eaten your weight in tryptophan-laced turkey?
Is it simply because you’ve eaten your weight, and your body is so busy digesting it can’t spare even a calorie to keep your eyes open?
Or is it because you’ve been frazzled by fighting traffic, waiting for a delayed flight at the airport…possibly with impatient and cranky children, trying to get home for the holiday?
Maybe it’s the cleaning, shopping and the hours of cooking a meal that your friends and family devour in less than a half an hour. And then you get to clean up. Wow, I’m feeling tired just thinking about it.
Sleeping Better at Thanksgiving?
An article published online by NICABM (National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine) theorizes that Thanksgiving might be your best night of sleep all year.
The article cites a 2009 study in the UK which concluded that people who experience more gratitude sleep better. They asked 401 Londoners questions measuring their gratitude level as well as questions measuring how well they sleep.
While this study is not specifically about Thanksgiving, it does remind us how focusing our attention on our blessings can have a very real and positive impact on our lives, including our sleep. That’s a great message.
But I’ll be the first to acknowledge that not everybody is focused on blessings and being grateful at Thanksgiving. Yes, the 4th Thursday of November is meant to be a day of family, friends and gratitude. It sure can be, and it’s wonderful when it is.
But let’s face it, it can be an exhausting and stressful day. So while I love the message NICABM is sending about gratitude helping us sleep better, I’m drawing the line at it being “the best night of sleep all year.”
Sleeping Worse at Thanksgiving?
Here’s where the conflict comes in.
According to a survey by SleepFoundation.org just completed in October 2022, adults in the United States typically lose 11 minutes (and 14 seconds!) of sleep every Thanksgiving.
But wait – that’s only if you don’t host the feast. If you do, you’ll lose 51 minutes. Ouch!
The reasons people gave for losing this Thanksgiving sleep were stress and anxiety, having to work on Black Friday, or getting up early to shop on Black Friday.
Then there are family commitments, social engagements and just plain eating and drinking too much. Staying up late to socialize, clean up, or just plain decompress from the festivities were common responses.
Traveling for the holiday was another reason people identified, along with sleeping in unfamiliar and not-so-comfortable digs.
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I have to say, I’m not sure whether I sleep better or worse at Thanksgiving. It probably varies by year and circumstance. But it’s pretty clear you can find people – and studies – on either side of the question.
Either way, we wish you a very happy, delicious, fun-filled and blessed Thanksgiving!