The societal and economic burden of insomnia in adults

In this study, we sought to understand the societal and economic burden of insomnia in high-income, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries within Northern, Southern and Western Europe, as well as North America and Australia. The focus of the study was on adult populations with chronic insomnia, defined as difficulty falling or staying asleep or non-restorative sleep experienced at least 3 times per week for at least 3 months, with daytime impairment. Methods included a review of the published literature, secondary database analyses and economic modelling. We identified information from the literature on insomnia among 16 countries across the regions of interest, with an overall estimated prevalence of chronic insomnia of 8%, representing approximately 41.6 million working-age adults. We found that insomnia is associated with poorer self-rated life satisfaction and estimated that individuals with insomnia would be willing to trade approximately 14% of their annual per capita household income to avoid its negative consequences. At the national level this translates to between $1.5 and $127.1 billion, annually, attributable to chronic insomnia (in 2019 United States Dollars [USD]). Chronic insomnia is also associated with an average loss in workplace productivity of 45-54 days, resulting in estimated annual losses in national gross-domestic product ranging from 0.64% to 1.31%, or approximately $1.8 to $207.5 billion (2019 USD). Given the substantial societal and economic effects of insomnia, strategies are needed to better mitigate its burden to positively impact the health, well-being and productivity of individuals and society, as a whole.