OnePoll conducted a study for ZOA that looked into the daily routines of Americans. The survey of 2000 Americans found that while people hope to sleep about eight hours a day, only 50% manage to.
The researchers found that many respondents were keen on improving their lives. About 78% of them believed they could achieve this by taking care of their physical and mental health. While this seems like an easy solution, many Americans struggle with keeping a healthy routine.
A healthy routine improved the performance of respondents
Despite their difficulty in keeping a healthy routine, many participants knew the benefits. About 84% believe adhering to their routine before bed and when they woke up improved their performance over the day.
The respondents made certain moves to ensure they performed better during the day. This included reading (40%), following a sleep schedule (45%), exercising (46%), and taking breakfast each morning (79%).
Barriers in maintaining a healthy routine
Many of the respondents (73%) would frequently improve their concentration in unhealthy ways. Some of the ways they did this was taking too many sugary energy drinks (45%)and drinking many cups of coffee throughout the day (49%). Fortunately, about 68% were willing to take healthier drinks if they were just as strong.
Some participants faced barriers when it came to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. For instance, some were frequently in a hurry (63%). Others found themselves waking up late and had to prepare for their daily activities (62%). As a result, many would forgo making a healthy meal and instead busy a less healthy alternative three times each week.
In addition, about 65% of the respondents seemed to prefer having beverages over the day as they were busy. At about 1 pm-3 pm, around 47% of them started to feel fatigued. At this point, they required something to boost their energy.
Approximately 73% claimed to focus on their food choices when they wanted an energy boost. However, 65% also admitted that they only considered the taste of their food rather than the number of calories. Furthermore, about 60% couldn’t survive the day without taking sugar. For this reason, the average respondent had nearly six energy crashes each week from taking too much caffeine or sugar.
