At Groove, we wanted to better understand how people are really sleeping, and what might be contributing to poor rest, pain, and interrupted nights. So we carried out the Groove Sleep and Pain Impact Report, surveying men and women about everything from insomnia and neck pain to menopause symptoms and nighttime waking.
The results paint a surprisingly emotional picture of modern sleep. These sleep statistics reveal just how many women are quietly managing exhaustion, discomfort, and disrupted rest on a regular basis.
The Reality: Most Of Us Aren’t Getting Enough Sleep
According to our survey, 91% of respondents get less than the recommended eight hours of sleep each night. Three in 10 get under six hours.
These sleep deprivation statistics go far beyond simply feeling tired. Nearly half of respondents, 48%, say poor sleep is affecting their mental health or overall wellbeing. Meanwhile, 37% feel exhausted at least three mornings a week.
That level of exhaustion affects everyday life in subtle but significant ways. Work feels harder to focus on. Small tasks feel bigger. Patience wears thinner. Exercise and self care often become the first things to disappear when energy is already running low.
These women sleep statistics suggest many people are functioning on far less rest than they actually need.
Sleep Gets Worse for Women in Midlife
One of the clearest patterns in the report is how many women feel their sleep has changed over time. Sixty percent say their sleep is worse than it used to be, with many describing their 40s and 50s as the point where sleep became noticeably lighter, more broken, and less restorative.
For some, it starts with waking earlier than usual and struggling to drift back off. For others, it’s the sudden arrival of night sweats, aching joints, or lying awake with a racing mind at 3am.
What once felt effortless can slowly become unpredictable.This stage of life often brings several changes at once. Hormones begin to fluctuate during perimenopause and menopause, physical discomfort becomes more common, and many women are also balancing work stress, ageing parents, teenagers, or years of cumulative exhaustion.
The result is often not one single sleep issue, but several overlapping disruptions happening at the same time.
Broken Sleep Is the Bigger Problem (Not Just Hours)
When discussing insomnia statistics, the focus often lands on how many hours people sleep. But the report suggests disruption may matter just as much as duration.
Two thirds of respondents take more than ten minutes to fall back asleep after waking during the night. One in four take over 30 minutes.
These interruptions quietly chip away at sleep quality. Losing 20 to 90 minutes each night through repeated waking may not sound dramatic in isolation, but over weeks and months it creates a very real sleep debt.
The Overlap: Pain, Hormones and Poor Sleep
Perhaps the most revealing insight from the Groove report is how often pain and sleep disruption overlap.
Three in 10 of all participants reported pain interrupting their sleep and waking them up. Among respondents with insomnia, 56% also report neck or back pain. Of those experiencing neck pain, only 9% manage to get at least eight hours of sleep.
This creates a difficult cycle. Pain causes waking. Interrupted sleep reduces recovery. Poor recovery can increase muscle tension and sensitivity, leading to more discomfort the following night. The body never quite gets the chance to reset properly.
This is where sleep setup can become genuinely important. A supportive pillow can help reduce strain on the neck and shoulders overnight, potentially limiting one source of disruption. The Groove Adjustable Pillow is designed to support spinal alignment and personalised comfort, particularly for people waking with stiffness or discomfort.
Women Are Experiencing Multiple Sleep Issues at Once
The report also highlights something many women quietly recognise. Sleep problems rarely happen one at a time. Four in ten women rate their sleep as poor or very poor.
Seventy five percent experience some level of sleep disruption, while 12% experience it most nights
Perhaps most revealingly, one in four women report dealing with four or more symptoms simultaneously. These symptoms include insomnia, night sweats,neck or back pain, restless legs and waking frequently to urinate.
Rather than one isolated issue, many women are experiencing layered disruption, where hormonal changes, discomfort, and fragmented sleep all feed into one another.
Most People Aren’t Symptom-Free
Out of 971 survey respondents, only 16 reported experiencing no sleep or pain related symptoms at all.
It’s an astonishingly small number, and one that says a great deal about how normalised poor sleep has become. It shouldn’t be normal to wake up in the middle of the night as humans need rest, but somewhere along the way, people stopped fighting for a better night’s sleep.
Our menopause sleep statistics suggest many women have quietly adjusted their expectations around rest, accepting exhaustion and sleep deprivation as part of everyday life rather than signs they may need support.
Are We Getting the Right Support?
Despite the scale of the issue, relatively few women appear to be receiving specialist help.
Only 29% have spoken to a GP about their symptoms, and just 7% were referred to a specialist. Only 7.5% were offered hormone therapy.
Even more striking, those experiencing three or more symptoms were two and a half times more likely to be prescribed medication than referred for further investigation or support.
The data suggests there is still a significant gap between recognising sleep problems and health professionals properly addressing their underlying causes.
What These Sleep Statistics Actually Tell Us
Taken together, these sleep statistics reveal a consistent pattern.
Osteopath Dr David Mccabe said: “What we tend to see is that sleep problems in women in their 40s and 50s are rarely just about sleep. They usually sit alongside physical tension, pain, and hormonal change all happening at the same time.
The overlap between insomnia and neck or back pain is significant. A lot of patients aren’t struggling to fall asleep — they’re waking because they’re uncomfortable, and that repeated disruption builds up over time.
The other thing that comes through quite clearly is how many people are dealing with multiple symptoms at once. When pain, hormonal changes and sleep disruption all overlap, it becomes much harder to make sense of what’s going on, and those cases don’t always get fully explored.”
It seems women’s sleep issues are under-treated. This is not simply a case of modern life making everyone a bit tired. The report points to a wider issue around women’s sleep health that deserves far more attention.
Final Words
Good sleep has started to feel strangely luxurious for many women, something hoped for rather than expected.
The Groove Sleep and Pain Impact Report highlights just how common disrupted sleep has become, particularly during midlife when hormones, pain, stress, and broken sleep often overlap. Yet despite how widespread these experiences are, many women still feel expected to simply put up with them.
But poor sleep should not just be accepted as part of life.
While there is rarely one single solution, small changes can make a meaningful difference. Creating a more supportive sleep environment is one place to start, especially when physical discomfort is contributing to nighttime waking.
The Groove Adjustable Pillow is designed to support better alignment and reduce pressure on the neck and shoulders overnight, helping create the conditions for more restorative rest.
Because while disrupted sleep may have become common, it does not mean it cannot be improved.