Sleep and the Allocation of Time

Using aggregated data for twelve countries, a cross section of microeconomic data, and a panel of households, the authors demonstrate that increases in time in the labor market reduce sleep. Their theory of the demand for sleep differs from standard models of time use by assuming that sleep affects wages by affecting labor market productivity. Estimates of a system of demand equations demonstrate that higher wage rates reduce sleep time among men, but increase their waking nonmarket time by an equal amount. Among women the wage effect on sleep is negative by very small.