Survey Results
- More than three in four Americans (77%) still have big dreams for themselves, but most may be too sleep deprived to ensure they have the strength to pursue those dreams.
- Minority populations are more bullish with 94% of Hispanics and 89 percent of Non-Hispanic Black respondents reporting they have still have big dreams.
- The unemployed also still have big dreams at a higher percentage than the broader populations at 86 percent.
- 39% of Americans aged 55+ reports that they do not have big dreams.
- 21% of Americans answered “no” to still having big dream for themselves.
- 92 percent of Americans say they believe that sleeping better is a necessary component for achieving their dreams, goals and ambitions.
- More than half (56%)* are getting only six hours or less of sleep on average each weeknight. (*Yankelovich study conducted in September. 2008)
- When asked to name “America’s biggest dreamer,” one third of respondents (33%) who had an opinion cited Barack Obama, who out-polled Martin Luther King (5%) and the 5 percent of survey participants who named themselves.
- 78% of Americans believe that they are able to dream as big as their parents were able to dream.
- However, more than half of those surveyed (52%) predicted it will be more difficult for the next generation to achieve their dreams.
- More than one-third of those surveyed (38%) say they have put their dreams “on hold” in the last six months, with 41 percent of those citing the economy as the reason. Four in 10 (39%) Americans think that the economy has “diminished” their ability to dream big over the past year.
- When asked to characterize the kind of dreams they have Americans said their most important dream related to:
- 45% – Family
- 18% – Contributing to a better world
- 13% – Career
- 10% – Health
- 9% – Education
- 2% – A major purchase (e.g. new car, new house – or major renovation, dream vacation)
- 2% – none of above
- A total of 94 percent of respondents said that there is a direct correlation between their ability to function well and a good night’s sleep. Almost as many respondents (88%) said that a pillow is important to sleeping soundly.
Survey Methodology
A nationally representative sample of 1,000 Americans was interviewed by telephone via Ipsos’ U.S. Telephone Express omnibus from April 16-19. With a sample of this size, the results are considered accurate within ± 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, of what they would have been had the entire population of adults in the U.S. been polled. The margin of error will be larger within regions and for other sub-groupings of the survey population. These data were weighted to ensure the sample’s regional and age/gender composition reflects that of the actual U.S. population according to date from the U.S. Census Bureau.