Holidays
How Thanksgiving Affects Sleep
On Thanksgiving 2025, Americans got 8 minutes more sleep, woke up 7% more often, went to bed 13 minutes later and got up 21 minutes later than on a typical Thursday night.
Thanksgiving is famous for the post-dinner slump, but what happens when Americans actually go to bed? We compared Thanksgiving night with the Thursdays around it.
With most people off work the next day, Thanksgiving night is effectively the start of a long weekend.
Updated daily · data to Nov 1, 2026 · How we measure
Sleep vs normal
+8 min
6h 33m vs 6h 25m
Wake-ups vs normal
+7%
4.3 vs 4.1 per night
Bedtime
10:30pm
+13 min vs usual 10:16pm
Under 6 hours of sleep
35%
±0 pts vs usual 35%
What the data shows
- Americans slept an average of 6h 33m, compared with 6h 25m on a typical Thursday night.
- 23% fell asleep after midnight, compared with 18% normally.
- The next morning, people got up at 8:32am on average, 21 minutes later than usual.
- 35% of sleepers got less than six hours, against 35% on a normal Thursday.
Sleep in the nights around Thanksgiving 2025
United States · dashed line is a typical Thursday
- Sleep
- Typical Thursday
Source: Sleepiest sleep data · to Nov 1, 2026
| Night | Sleep | Wake-ups | Bedtime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 20, 2025 | 6h 27m | 4.16 | 10:17pm |
| Nov 21, 2025 | 6h 35m | 4.20 | 10:30pm |
| Nov 22, 2025 | 6h 43m | 4.30 | 10:27pm |
| Nov 23, 2025 | 6h 26m | 4.11 | 10:23pm |
| Nov 24, 2025 | 6h 23m | 4.27 | 10:17pm |
| Nov 25, 2025 | 6h 27m | 4.42 | 10:21pm |
| Nov 26, 2025 | 6h 34m | 4.48 | 10:26pm |
| Nov 27, 2025 | 6h 33m | 4.35 | 10:30pm |
| Nov 28, 2025 | 6h 39m | 4.29 | 10:34pm |
| Nov 29, 2025 | 6h 41m | 4.45 | 10:26pm |
| Nov 30, 2025 | 6h 16m | 4.15 | 10:21pm |
| Dec 1, 2025 | 6h 22m | 4.17 | 10:14pm |
| Dec 2, 2025 | 6h 22m | 4.49 | 10:13pm |
| Dec 3, 2025 | 6h 27m | 4.32 | 10:10pm |
| Dec 4, 2025 | 6h 25m | 4.10 | 10:17pm |
Wake-ups in the nights around Thanksgiving 2025
United States · average times sleep was broken per night
- Wake-ups
- Typical Thursday
Source: Sleepiest sleep data · to Nov 1, 2026
| Night | Wake-ups |
|---|---|
| Nov 20, 2025 | 4.16 |
| Nov 21, 2025 | 4.20 |
| Nov 22, 2025 | 4.30 |
| Nov 23, 2025 | 4.11 |
| Nov 24, 2025 | 4.27 |
| Nov 25, 2025 | 4.42 |
| Nov 26, 2025 | 4.48 |
| Nov 27, 2025 | 4.35 |
| Nov 28, 2025 | 4.29 |
| Nov 29, 2025 | 4.45 |
| Nov 30, 2025 | 4.15 |
| Dec 1, 2025 | 4.17 |
| Dec 2, 2025 | 4.49 |
| Dec 3, 2025 | 4.32 |
| Dec 4, 2025 | 4.10 |
Upcoming dates
- Thanksgiving 2026Thursday, November 26, 2026
- Thanksgiving 2027Thursday, November 25, 2027
Frequently asked questions
Does turkey make you sleepy?
Turkey contains tryptophan, but no more than many other foods. The tiredness after Thanksgiving dinner is more about the size of the meal, alcohol and a long day than the turkey itself.
Do Americans sleep more on Thanksgiving?
The figures above compare Thanksgiving night with a normal Thursday night for Sleepiest sleepers in the US.
More sleep data
See how your own sleep compares
Sleepiest tracks your sleep automatically, no wearable needed, and helps you drift off with bedtime stories, meditations and sounds.
Figures are anonymised averages from Sleepiest app users who track their sleep, not a representative sample of the population. Nights are compared with the same weekday in the surrounding weeks. Groups with too few sleepers are never shown. Methodology