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All the latest facts & figures on Insomnia in Scandinavia, exploring the most vulnerable demographics and which countries struggle to sleep the most in 2022.
As we move through Spring each year, we start to see the long nights finally giving way to bright summer days. Scandinavia in particular is subject to some of the most distinct seasonal transitions in the world. But as much as we enjoy the lengthening daylight hours, for some it may bring with them an unwelcome guest: insomnia. Whether or not the changing of the season actually causes insomnia has not been determined scientifically, but it’s a common assumption that it affects our sleep patterns.
Just how common is insomnia in Scandinavian countries? How many people struggle to sleep at night? To find out more, we surveyed 250 adults in Norway about how often they have trouble falling asleep.
In a hurry? Here are the quick facts:
We surveyed 250 Norwegian adults about their experiences with insomnia in 2022, asking them how often they struggle to fall asleep in order to get a better understanding of recurring insomnia and its frequency among the population. To explore how insomnia affects demographic groups, we asked respondents to fill in their age and gender before completing the survey, and categorised them into age groups from 18-24 up to 65+. We asked:
How often do you struggle to fall asleep?
With midnight summer sunsets and just a few hours of daylight in winter, it’s no surprise that our sleep schedules can change throughout the year. Just how often do adults in Norway have trouble falling asleep in 2022? Here’s what our survey found:
It isn’t immediately obvious that gender would have an effect on insomnia, but our data found a clear difference between men and women when it comes to experience with sleep. We found that:
Mental and physical health are known to vary with age, and insomnia is no different. But just how much does the frequency of insomnia change as you age? Our results suggest that:
*The percentage of 18-24 year olds who struggle to sleep at least a few times a month was calculated by adding the percentage of this age group who said they struggle to fall asleep every night (13%), three times a week or more (17%), once or twice a week (9%) and a few times a month (38%).
The chart above displays a more condensed version of the full survey findings.
So how does this struggle with sleep affect other countries across Scandinavia? Which countries have the biggest problems with insomnia? To find out, we analysed search data for phrases such as ‘Can't sleep’, ‘Insomnia symptoms’ and ‘Sleep deprivation symptoms’ across each Scandinavian country using Keyword Finder. To ensure the accuracy of our results, we translated each phrase into the respective language of each country. In cases where other Scandinavian languages or English phrases had higher search rates, we used the results from these variants. We also used several iterations of each phrase, choosing the variant with the most searches for our data.
Insomnia isn’t inexplicable; like all health conditions, it has its causes and potential treatments. One of these is melatonin, a hormone used by the body to regulate the sleep cycle. Laws on using melatonin as a supplement vary across Scandinavia, with Sweden requiring a prescription, while Norway and Finland allow very low doses to be used as supplements.
So how many people in Scandinavia are interested in insomnia solutions such as melatonin? To find out, we studied search data for the terms ‘melatonin’ and ‘how to fall asleep fast’ across each country in Scandinavia.
Interested in learning more? Here is some further reading:
We hope that our data has helped provide some insight into insomnia and its recurrence rate across Scandinavia in 2022. If you’re looking for more information on conditions such as insomnia and sleep apnea, check out our dedicated page Helsestart for a collection of articles on these and many other health-related topics.
