NJ top 10 in bad sleep, and some fascinating animal sleep facts

White noise machine…check.

Cool side of the pillow…check.

Room darkening drapes…check.

Whatever you’re doing to fall and stay asleep it isn’t working well in the Garden State. A study was done recently using Google Keyword Planner to go after 96 terms indicating poor sleep then calculated search volumes per 100,000 residents in each state.

Turns out New Jersey is the 10th most sleep deprived state according to this research. And “sleep paralysis” is Jersey’s most searched term with over 8,000 per month.

Sleep paralysis is where you wake during REM sleep, when you shouldn’t, and are literally unable to move. This sounds scary as hell. Are we sure it isn’t from property tax nightmares?

The only states with worse sleep than us? Texas, Virginia, Connecticut, Georgia, Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, Maryland and California.

Chalk it up to various causes such as sleep paralysis, sleep apnea and insomnia.

Sometimes the cause of your sleep disturbance is your significant other. Things like snoring or tossing and turning have led to separate bedrooms becoming commonplace. One in five couples now sleep in entirely separate bedrooms.

We're a funny species, us Homo sapiens. Some need absolute silence to sleep. Others need noise. My brother used to need a television left on for the sound of people talking before he could fall asleep. The problem was it would then go on all night, and my room was connected to his. My parents didn't invest in a timer.

Stranger still was a friend I had back in Michigan who absolutely could not sleep unless she had her own pillow with her. She would travel with this pillow. No other pillow would do. She even brought it all the way to Hawaii and back on their family's annual vacation.

So if you think our species has some interesting sleep quirks, take a look at these species below. For example, did you know only one study has been done on bullfrogs and the conclusion was this is a creature that literally does not ever sleep? Scientists are divided on the issue and you'd think someone would have cashed in on some sweet government grant to settle it definitively.

Or how about the octopus that changes color when it sleeps? When you get to the cat, you'll feel inferior that it can wake up in a manner you cannot. But don't all cats want us to feel inferior to them? Read on and scroll through some truly cool animal sleep facts.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Jeff Deminski only.

You can now listen to Deminski & Doyle — On Demand! Hear New Jersey’s favorite afternoon radio show any day of the week. Download the Deminski & Doyle show wherever you get podcasts, on our free app, or listen right now.

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