The 10 Most Sleepless Cities In The U.S.
Move over, Seattle — Zulily finds where moms are really losing their Zzzzzs
If you’re lying awake at night trying to figure out how to do it all as a mom, you can rest assured with one thing: you are not alone in your sleepless nights. In a recent social listening study, Zulily discovered the top 10 cities where moms are sharing their struggles with sleeplessness on social media. Los Angeles tops the list and with Seattle coming in at number seven, it’s clear there are a whole lot of cities where moms – and their babies – are having a hard time falling asleep.
Mom-somnia Is Having a Moment
If you’re a new parent, you probably never quite appreciated how well you slept before you had a baby until now. The struggle of Mom-somnia is real. Those middle-of-the-night feedings, wake ups, and interrupted sleep you’ve experienced due to your infant or toddler not sleeping through the night can be brutal. It can also cause serious sleep deprivation like you’ve never experienced, despite how much advice you’ve received from other moms or how many parenting books you read.
But now, more than ever, with inflation impacting 92% of household budgets, millions of moms are also experiencing sleeplessness due to feeling more overwhelmed by financial burdens. According to a study commissioned by Zulily, compared to last year, more than half of moms (55%) are reportedly staying up at night worrying about the world, planning for the future or caring for their children, and only 43% feel prepared to protect their family budget.
“Household budgets are feeling the squeeze as 72% of moms report that spending for essentials has been the most impacted,” says Erica Williams, Zulily’s kids merchandise manager. “Welcoming a new baby into a home requires a lot of essentials as well as extra purchases along the way. And, the ever-changing nature of new moms and babies means that moms are shopping more frequently for baby supplies.”
The stress of keeping all the household balls in the air, along with interrupted sleep, have moms looking for advice, sympathy and community on their social media communities.
The Most Sleepless Cities in the U.S.
In our observations of how frequently moms were posting about sleeplessness on social media, these cities rose to the top. The “winners” (um, congrats?) may surprise devoted Sleepless in Seattle fans. Does your city rank in the top 10?
- Los Angeles, CA
- Washington, DC
- Chicago, IL
- Atlanta, GA
- Houston, TX
- Philadelphia, PA
- Seattle, WA
- San Francisco, CA
- Hoboken, NJ
- Dallas, TX
To identify the most sleepless cities, we leveraged Sprout Social’s social listening capabilities to identify cities where there was heavy conversation on social media (between December 21, 2021 and June 28, 2022) related to moms experiencing sleepless nights with their little ones. We studied Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, and looked for some specific keywords, such as sleep regression, sleepless nights or sleep training. We also looked for phrases that matched along with newborn, colic, newborn, sleep and several other terms related to having trouble getting your kid (or yourself) to sleep. We also looked for hashtags such as #motherhood #parenting #momlife #tiredmom and #babysleep. The cities that used the keywords most, plus one of the terms with a geographic tag, came out on top.
In our social listening sessions, Los Angeles and Houston were aTwitter with talk of sleep regression that often kicks in with four-month-olds, New York was lamenting mattresses on the floor, and everyone is talking about the pros and cons of sleep training.
Mom-somnia is on the rise, but the good news is, you’re in good company.
Combat sleepless nights
To help combat those sleepless nights Zulily is supersizing its regular product offering to help lighten the load for the 4 million women who become new moms every year. Zulily’s biannual Welcome Baby event, September 14 to 29, will feature a special Mom-somnia collection of items from satin pillowcases to calming body washes and comfortable sleeping sets, to help you (and your little ones) catch some Zzzzs.
The event features more than 6,500 styles from layette sets, playwear, car seats, strollers and more from brands for expectant and new moms such as Carter’s, Gerber, Burt’s Bees Baby at up to 60% off. All products are specially curated around fun, on-trend themes to make your shopping experience easy and fun — this fall’s event includes a Double the Fun collections for twins, and Buzzy Buys for Baby, buzzed-about baby and parenting gear and more, all with the added bonus of free shipping on all orders of $89 and above (see details).
Don’t miss the exciting new exclusive capsule collection, co-designed by fashion influencers and new moms, Jessica Nickson and Noelle Downing. Produced in collaboration with fan favorite brand, Little Millie, the collections include over 170 styles across 20 trends from $8.99-$46.99 for baby and mom.
Shop the special Mom-somnia collection for products to help you (and your little ones) catch some Zzzzs.
Sources: Survey results are from surveys conducted by Pollfish on behalf of Zulily in July 2022 of over 1,000 U.S. based moms between the ages of 25-44 with kids 18 and under and in March 2022 of over 500 U.S. based moms between the ages of 25-44 that are expecting or have a baby under 12 months old. Top 10 Sleepless Cities determined by social listening on Sprout Social across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok over a course of 180 days from the date of December 31st, 2021 – June 28th, 2022. Sprout Social used a collection of relevant key words to identify over 5,629 moms.
