A Quarter of NJ Workers are Starving for Sleep, Survey Finds

New Jersey workers are among the most sleepless people in America, according to a survey of thousands of individuals nationwide.

Nearly a quarter (24.7 percent) of Garden State respondents in the Mattress Clarity survey said they're surviving on less than five hours of sleep each night.

To put that into perspective, 8.6 percent of workers made the same claim in Arkansas.

"We've got a lot of folks around here that commute that one hour into New York City, so they're getting up at 4 or 5 in the morning, and of course they get home at night — 7 or 8 o'clock," said Adrian Pristas, corporate director for sleep medicine with Hackensack Meridian Health.

Pristas said folks in the Northeast are running a "rat race" unlike those in other parts of the country, and it's cutting into our chances at solid shut-eye.

The percentage of sleep-deprived workers is greater in New York, Maryland, and Delaware.

While it's recommended everyone get seven-and-a-half to eight hours of sleep each night, individuals should at the very minimum try to squeeze in six hours of snooze time, Pristas said.

"Once you start getting less than six hours, your reaction time behind the wheel of a car is equal to that of a drunken sailor," he said. "Physically and cognitively, you do not do well."

Of the individuals surveyed who get five hours or less of sleep each night, 57 percent said work stress leads them to experience a bad night's sleep.