How much sleep do sports fans lose over their favorite team?

Do you often lie awake at night when your favorite sports team or athlete fails to secure a win? You’re not alone, ceiling-staring crew! Turns out, 1 in 4 American sports fans has trouble sleeping when their favorite team or athlete is not doing well. That’s according to a recent survey by sports platform Wetten.com, which polled 3,000 fans across the United States.

What we found:

• 26% of American sports fans experience worse sleep when their favorite team or athlete performs poorly.
• This unwanted “ceiling duty” lasts an average of 62 minutes.
• Fans in New Jersey are hit the hardest, lying awake for an average of 91 minutes over their favorite team’s performance—the highest in the nation.
• Meanwhile, sports fans in Utah seem to have it the easiest, losing just 23 minutes of sleep per night on average.

Sports fans toss and turn for 62 minutes

Just when you’re ready to catch up on your beauty sleep after a nail-biting match day, that missed goal or lost championship keeps replaying in your mind. Goodbye, sleep! This nightmare is a reality for a whopping 26% of American sports fans. No matter their favorite sport or team, they often lie awake when their favorite team or athlete is not doing well. And it’s not just a brief restless moment—on average, sports fans lie awake for 62 minutes over their favorite team’s performance.

New Jersey sports fans lose the most sleep

So, where do fans lose the most sleep when their favorite team or sports hero is struggling? New Jersey takes the top spot. Sports fans there are stuck staring at the ceiling for an average of 91 minutes. That’s nearly 20% of an average 8-hour sleep cycle—talk about losing sleep over a loss! Arkansas and Oklahoma are close runners-up, with fans spending about 90 minutes awake. Indiana and Colorado complete the top five, with fans losing an average of 87 minutes of sleep when their sports idols are underperforming.

Utah sports fans drift off the fastest

Win or lose, sports fans in Utah manage to let their favorite team’s performance slide with minimal impact on their sleep. On average, Utah fans only lie awake for about 23 minutes when their favorite team or athlete is in poor form. This makes them the quickest to fall back to sleep compared to sports fans in other states.

But Utah isn’t alone in keeping sleep loss to a minimum. Rhode Island fans are just behind, with an average of 30 minutes of wakefulness after a bad game. Kentucky also ranks well, with sports enthusiasts there losing around 33 minutes of sleep. These states experience significantly less sleep disruption compared to the national average, indicating that some fans can quickly get back to counting sheep even after their favorite team’s poor performance.

Methodology

In August 2024, Wetten.com carried out an independent survey of 3,000 sports fans across the country. Participants were asked how many minutes they typically lie awake after their favorite team or athlete delivers a poor performance. The survey sample consisted of 62% male and 38% female respondents, with an average age of 42 years. The following states were excluded due to insufficient data: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming.