A study claims that poor people are less well-rested than rich people and women are less well-rested than men. Now with a claim like that, you expect huge differences, right?

The percentages of those who are not well rested are 29% vs. 35% for rich against poor and 33% vs. 26% for women vs. men. Call me crazy, but these sound small. That’s one in 16 extra poor people and one in 14 women. The only group that shows anything remotely interesting in seniors, who are at 19% poorly rested. Even that’s not a HUGE difference.

The result for the poor, of course, prompts the usual wringing of hands about the poor are up worrying all night. Maybe. But the poor have higher rates of alcoholism, drug abuse, smoking and obesity — all of which negatively impact restfulness. I would suspect this is a larger factor than any mental issues.

Allow me to rewrite the analysis for Gallup:

A well-being survey shows that about a third of Americans claim they are not well-rested. There were slight upticks for the rates of being well-rested for those with higher incomes, for men, for people without children and especially for seniors.

Social scientists. I swear.