Health Canada guidelines recommend seven to nine hours of sleep each night for adult Canadians. Our latest survey shows that only 35 per cent of Canadians are reaching this threshold on a typical night’s sleep on a weekday or workday (unchanged since November 2022) and 43 per cent are achieving it on a typical night’s sleep on a weekend or non-workday.
Most Canadians are sleeping fewer than seven hours on a typical weekday or workday (63 per cent) and half (50 per cent) on a typical weekend or non-workday.
Seven in 10 Canadians are “very well” or “moderately well” rested on weekdays, while three in four express the same feelings on weekends.
Just under one in four Canadians (23 per cent) say they never find it hard to fall asleep at night during the course of an average week. Men (27 per cent) and Canadians aged 55 and over (33 per cent) are more likely to report no issues. The regional numbers tell a different story. While more than a quarter of Quebecers (28 per cent), British Columbians (27 per cent) and Atlantic Canadians (also 27 per cent) never have a problem falling asleep at night, the proportions drop to 20 per cent in Ontario, 19 per cent in Saskatchewan and Manitoba and an eye-catching nine per cent in Alberta.
Almost half of Canadians (47 per cent) say worrying about money made it harder for them to fall asleep at night over the past month. Women are more likely to have agonized over financial matters than men (50 per cent to 44 per cent).
Majorities of Canadians aged 35 to 54 (53 per cent) and aged 18 to 34 (51 per cent) say they were unable to fall sleep quickly because of concerns about money. The proportion is lower among Canadians aged 55 and over (39 per cent).
Alberta — whose residents have the most trouble falling asleep — is clearly ahead when it comes to money woes affecting rest, with 64 per cent of the province’s residents saying financial concerns made it harder to fall asleep, compared to 50 per cent in Ontario and 45 per cent in B.C.
More than half of Canadians who voted for the NDP in last month’s federal election lost sleep on account of financial concerns, compared to 49 per cent of those who backed the Conservative Party and 47 per cent of those who supported the Liberal Party.
We tested five other concerns, and not one made more than three in 10 Canadians lose sleep. Health is a distant second at 29 per cent, followed by relationships and family (28 per cent) and work (24 per cent).
There are some interesting nuances on some of these problems. More than a third of Canadians aged 18 to 34 (37 per cent) have lost sleep over relationships and family, compared to just 20 per cent among those aged 55 and over. Work leads to insomnia for more Canadians aged 35 to 54 (34 per cent) than those aged 18 to 34 (28 per cent) or aged 55 and over (12 per cent).
Lastly, one in five Canadians say they have lost sleep over Canadian politics and issues (22 per cent, up 12 points since November 2022) and international politics and issues (20 per cent, up 12 points). While this may not seem like much when compared to the higher numbers for financial matters, the proportion of respondents who are having a tough time falling asleep because of politics has doubled in three and a half years.
Sleeplessness over Canadian politics went from 10 per cent to 19 per cent among men, and from 10 per cent to 24 per cent among women. We will have to wait to see if the sleeplessness experienced by one in four women was a blip directly related to the Canadian federal election, or the new status quo.
Mario Canseco is president of Research Co.
Results are based on an online survey conducted from May 4-6, 2025, among 1,001 adults in Canada. The data has been statistically weighted according to census figures for age, gender and region in Canada. The margin of error — which measures sample variability — is plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
