The demand for sleep: A South African study

Using South Africa's first time use survey, we investigate the demand for sleep. We show that time spent sleeping responds to changing economic incentives. We find strong and significant negative effects of wages and education on sleep indicating that sleep time is just another resource which can be drawn upon when other uses of time become more attractive. Our results are consistent with previous international findings. Indeed, our model seems to indicate that differing sleep patterns across countries can be explained by economic factors, indicating that there are microeconomic as well as macroeconomic linkages to time spent sleeping.