Sleep Lab · Data
European sleep data, and the numbers we would not use.
We started writing this page to quote a figure about how badly Europe sleeps. Almost every number we found was second-hand, undated, or defined so loosely that two reports disagreed by a factor of three. So we kept only what could be traced back to the body that published it — and wrote down why the rest was left out.
Figures we could trace to their publisher
Each row states who measured it, when, and exactly what was measured. A symptom rate is not a diagnosis rate, and we have kept that distinction in the wording.
| Country | What was measured | Figure | How it was measured | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | Any insomnia symptom | 35% | Difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep, at least 3 nights a week, over the past four weeks Self-reported · 2024 panel · n > 27,000 | Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Gesundheit in Deutschland · Journal of Health Monitoring 6/2026 (Beyer A.K. et al.) |
| Germany | Trouble staying asleep vs trouble falling asleep | 30.4% vs 15.7% | Same panel definition as above Self-reported · 2024 panel · n > 27,000 | Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Figure relayed by univadis, 2026-06-03 |
| France | At least one sleep disorder | 38% | Self-reported, with insomnia the most common single complaint National sample · OpinionWay field work · 2026 | Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) INSV 2026 press release |
| France | Sleeping under six hours on workdays | 25% | Self-reported weekday sleep duration National sample · 2026 | Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) INSV 2026 press release |
| France | Average sleep duration | 6h50 · 7h48 | Workdays 6h50, non-workdays 7h48 (2026); 7h04 and 7h38 respectively in 2025 Self-reported · 2026, comparable year-on-year basis | Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) INSV 2026 / INSV 2025 |
| France | Night-time noise disturbance | 36% | Of those disturbed, 41% trace it to neighbours, household members or appliances Self-reported · 2026 | Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) INSV 2026 press release |
| France | Phone left on at night | 58% | Roughly one in four of them is woken by a notification; 71% get under an hour of daylight outdoors on workdays Self-reported · 2026 | Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) INSV 2026 press release |
| France | Sleep disturbed during heatwaves | 81% | Above 21 °C, falling asleep took 46 minutes on average instead of 31 Self-reported · 2026 | Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) INSV 2026 press release |
| Sweden | Sleep difficulties | 45% | Adults aged 16 and over, self-reported National public health survey · 2024 | Folkhälsomyndigheten (Public Health Agency of Sweden) 2024 national survey, reported 2024-11-16 |
Robert Koch Institute, German national health panel, 2024, n > 27,000The most useful finding here is not the biggest number. In Germany, trouble staying asleep is reported almost twice as often as trouble falling asleep — 30.4% against 15.7%. Most sleep products are designed for falling asleep, because that is the part you remember. The complaint with the larger population is the one that happens after.
Indicative only — single source
These are circulated widely but reach us through one media report each, and a few are several years old. We are publishing them with that label rather than dropping them silently, because knowing a figure is weakly sourced is more useful than not knowing it exists.
| Country | What was measured | Figure | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spain | Chronic insomnia | 14% | La Voz de Galicia (2024-09-16), Okdiario (2023-09-20) Media citing Spanish epidemiological data · 2023–2024 | Reported as roughly 6.4% twenty years earlier. |
| Spain | Any insomnia symptom | about 50% | La Voz de Galicia (2024-09-16) Media report · 2024 | Self-reported symptoms, not a clinical diagnosis. |
| Poland | Sleep problems / insomnia | about 50% / 20% | Tygodnik Powszechny (2025-04-22) Media report · 2025 | Self-reported. |
| Poland | Dissatisfied with sleep quality | 49.9% | "Tak spia Polacy" (2023-12-11) Survey report · 2023 | Up ten points year on year. |
| Netherlands | Adult insomnia / dissatisfaction | about 33% / 63% | GGZ Nieuws (2020-10-09), Nieuw Groenendaal (2022-10-26) Media reports · 2020 / 2022 | Broad self-reported insomnia definition. Data is from 2020 and 2022. |
| United Kingdom | Insomnia symptoms lasting more than ten years | 16.92% | Hillarys, Sleep Statistics 2025 Retailer statistics round-up · 2025 | Symptom self-report, not a clinical diagnosis. |
| Cross-country | Sex difference | 3.83 vs 4.13 nights | ResMed 5th annual global sleep survey (2025-02-26) Manufacturer survey · 2025 | Good nights per week, women vs men; difficulty falling asleep 38% vs 29%. |
The numbers we refused to use
Every one of these would have made a better headline than the honest version. That is precisely the test.
Market size figures for "sleep aids"
Published estimates for the same label range from about USD 32bn to USD 97bn for 2025 — nearly three times apart — depending on whether bedding and wearables are counted. We will not quote a number that depends on who is defining the category.
European market size for sleep products
The only available figures sit behind a paywall and cannot be checked.
German retail price bands
Sampled on a single German price-comparison site, three categories only, unweighted. Useful inside Germany, misleading anywhere else.
Social media view counts
No platform publishes a comparable official figure, and the numbers reported by press differ from each other by multiples.
Italy
We could not find a national prevalence figure we could verify. No data is a better answer than a guessed one.
Two ways to read this page
The gap between those two rows is roughly twenty percentage points. Any sentence that mixes them is wrong, whichever direction it exaggerates in. When you see a sleep statistic quoted without its definition, assume the broader one was used and the narrower one was implied.
How to cite this page
All figures here may be reused with attribution. Cite the publisher named in the Source column, not us — we did not collect this data. Example:
35% of adults in Germany reported difficulty falling or staying asleep at least three nights a week over a four-week period — Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Gesundheit in Deutschland, Journal of Health Monitoring 6/2026, 2024 panel, n > 27,000.
Sources
- Robert Koch Institute (RKI) — Figure relayed by univadis, 2026-06-03
- Institut National du Sommeil et de la Vigilance (INSV) — INSV 2026 press release
- Folkhälsomyndigheten (Public Health Agency of Sweden) — 2024 national survey, reported 2024-11-16
- Indicative figures: La Voz de Galicia, Okdiario, Tygodnik Powszechny, GGZ Nieuws, Nieuw Groenendaal, Hillarys, ResMed — see the single-source table above.