A lot of people lie awake at night, worried about their money, and 29 million of those are especially worried about their housing, according to a new study from Bankrate [1].
Overall, 69 percent of Americans surveyed said something often keeps them up at night. Twelve percent said they worry most about being able to pay their rents or mortgages.
Most insomnia-inducing stress is not money related—41 percent of people surveyed said relationships are actually their biggest concern—but money is a close second. According to the study, about 36 percent said they’re worried about money.
Older millennials (ages 28 to 37) are overall most likely to say they occasionally lose sleep, Bankrate reported. A full 77 percent of them said they lie awake at night because of something. But it's younger baby boomers (ages 54 to 63) for whom money is the top concern keeping them up at night. Thirty-nine percent say financial worries occasionally keep them from falling asleep, according to Bankrate.
While housing worries are one of the top five reasons respondents cited as financial concerns, stress over paying the rent or mortgage was actually fourth on the list, behind saving for retirement, credit card debt, and healthcare costs. Education costs rounded out the top five money concerns.
Broken down, 22 percent of Gen Xers and 25 percent of younger baby boomers say they sometimes lose sleep because they’re worried about being able to save enough for retirement. That compares with 6 percent of adults who are older than them, about three times as many millennials (17 percent) say they stay up thinking about their educational costs.
Bankrate offered a few remedies for reclaiming some sleep such as asking for help. Financial planners exist to help with money matters, and Bankrate recommended tapping into one. Short of that, a side gig to bring in some extra cash could do a lot to calm the nerves enough to get some sleep, Bankrate concluded.