Age, income, and personal attitudes influence the financial value individuals assign to their sleep.
RT’s Three Key Takeaways:
- Monetary Valuation Tool: Researchers validated the Monetary Sleep Value Questionnaire, which measures what individuals are willing to pay for better sleep quality versus the financial compensation they require to lose sleep.
- Demographic Influence: The study found that higher income levels are associated with higher compensation expectations for sleep loss, while older individuals generally require less financial compensation to sacrifice sleep.
- Intervention Design: Understanding how personal sleep values align with economic factors may help healthcare providers design more effective sleep healthcare interventions tailored to individual patient profiles.
Individuals place varying financial values on their sleep, with these differences linked to factors such as age, income, and existing attitudes about rest, according to data presented at Sleep 2026.
The results support a two-factor structure for the Monetary Sleep Value Questionnaire (MSVQ), reflecting two distinct dimensions: a person’s willingness to pay for increases in sleep quality and the compensation required to give up sleep. Analyses found that older age was associated with lower compensation demands for sacrificing sleep, while higher income was associated with greater compensation expectations.
“How individuals financially value sleep may reflect broader attitudes about sleep, as well as their demographic characteristics such as age and income,” said Abigail Woolley, lead author and undergraduate researcher at Brigham Young University, in a news release. “The Monetary Sleep Value Questionnaire could serve as a valuable tool for understanding the economic factors that shape how people think about their sleep.”
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) recommends that adults get seven or more hours of sleep per night, recognizing that sleep is essential to health. While insufficient sleep has been estimated to carry substantial economic costs at the societal level, less has been known about how individuals personally assign value to sleep.
The study used data from a survey of 455 adults across the continental US with a mean age of 45 years. Participants completed the Sleep Value Item Bank 2.0, which classifies individuals into one of five sleep value profiles: unconcerned, appreciative, ambivalent, devaluing, and concerned.
Individuals with a “Sleep Devalue” profile required less money to give up sleep, while those with a “Sleep Appreciate” profile were willing to pay more for better sleep. All reported associations were statistically significant, according to the research data.
Woolley noted that integrating economic perspectives into sleep research may open new avenues for understanding how personal sleep values can inform intervention design.
“Integrating economic perspectives into sleep healthcare research may offer novel insights for designing interventions that align with how individuals personally value their sleep,” said Abigail Woolley, lead author and undergraduate researcher at Brigham Young University.
