A new Gallup poll finds that Katie Krimisos is among the majority of American women who have trouble getting a healthy night's sleep. Krimitsos has started the following podcast: sleep meditation for women To provide some help.
Natalie Ciampa Jennings/Natalie Jennings, courtesy of Katie Kmitsos
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Natalie Ciampa Jennings/Natalie Jennings, courtesy of Katie Kumitsos
A new Gallup poll finds that Katie Krimisos is among the majority of American women who have trouble getting a healthy night's sleep. Krimitsos has started a podcast called. sleep meditation for women To provide some help.
Natalie Ciampa Jennings/Natalie Jennings, courtesy of Katie Kmitsos
When Katie Krimissos lies awake and watches sleepless hours pass, it's mostly because her mind is wrestling with a mental checklist of things to do. It is. In high school, it consisted of homework, tests, or an upcoming big sports game.
“Until 2 a.m., I was wide awake, only my head spinning in confusion,” says Krimitsos.
Even as an adult, there were times when I struggled to sleep, like when I was starting a podcasting company in Tampa and when I was breastfeeding my first daughter eight years ago. “I was already very used to grainy eyes,” she says.
Krimitus, now 43, said she has noticed an increase in anxiety and frequent insomnia in recent years. Her mind wanders over “millions and billions” of details about running her company and family, like paying the electricity bill, making dinner and dentist appointments, feeding her pets and monitoring her parents' health checkups. was. This checklist never got smaller, despite her best efforts, and she was constantly chasing her sleep.
“So we feel like we're walking into the bedroom with a huge rock on our shoulders,” she says. “And that's what we're lying with.”
By “we” I mean Krimitus herself and the many other women she speaks to and works with who complain of fatigue.
A recent Gallup poll found that women are one of the demographics with the most trouble sleeping, and that Americans' sleep patterns have deteriorated rapidly over the past decade.
“If you look specifically at adult women under 50, this group is seeing the most rapid changes in terms of decreases in sleep duration, decreases in sleep satisfaction, and even stress rates.” Gallup Senior says researcher Sarah Fioroni.
Overall, Americans are sleeping at an all-time low in both quantity and quality.
More than half (57%) now say they could get more sleep, which is a significant increase compared to 10 years ago. Research shows this is an ongoing trend that is accelerating. In 1942, 59% of Americans said they slept eight hours or more. Currently, this is true for only 26% of American girlfriends. One in five women now sleep less than five hours a day, which is also an all-time high.
“When you have bad sleep, everything else becomes worse,” says Gina Marie Mathews, a postdoctoral sleep researcher at Stony Brook Medicine in New York. Although her Gallup study doesn't mention the reason for the rapid decline, Matthew says research shows that smartphones are helping us, especially teens, stay up later. states.
According to her, sleep is considered one of the three pillars of health, along with diet and exercise. But American culture devalues rest.
“In terms of structural and policy changes, we need to recognize that many of the systems currently in place are not helping people, particularly women, get enough sleep or get the sleep they need.” she says, advocating for things like paid families. Vacations and flexible work hours may help women sleep longer and better.
No one can change a culture that interferes with sleep. But when Tampa mom Katie Krimissos faced her own insomnia, she started the podcast below. sleep meditation for womena series of comforting episodes in which she recognizes and attempts to soothe the stress that is unique to many women.
This podcast alone averages about 1 million unique listeners per month and is one of 20 podcasts produced by Klitomisos' company, Women's Meditation Network.
“Seven of those 20 podcasts are focused on sleep in some way and account for 50% of my listenership,” Krimitsos said. “Yes, that's the biggest problem.”
Krimitus says she believes women are carrying the burden of the ever-accelerating pace of life. “Our interpretations of how fast life should be and what we should 'achieve', what we should have, and what we should do have increased exponentially,” she says.
She says she sleeps better after intentionally cutting back on activities and commitments for herself and her two children. She says, “I feel more satisfied at the end of the day. I feel more fulfilled and willing to let go of things that are unfinished.”
