More Israelis suffered from insomnia in the weeks following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7 and have continued to do so during the ensuing war against the terrorist group, according to a survey the Central Bureau of Statistics published on Wednesday.
Some 42% of Israelis polled after Oct. 7 reported insomnia at least once a week, compared to 31% of those surveyed before the attack.
The research, which polled 6,474 people aged 20 and over, also found that half of Israelis slept less than the recommended seven hours per night on weekdays during 2023 as a whole. Only 21% said they sleep eight hours or more during the week—17% of the surveyed Jewish population and 36% of Israeli Arabs.
Asked about the weekends, 48% reported sleeping eight hours per night, with 48% of Jews and 51% of Arabs saying they got the recommended hours.
In January, Tel Aviv University researchers found that nearly 25% of Israeli Jews have suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following the Oct. 7 invasion.
The research confirmed that following the Hamas massacre, the mental stress of Israeli citizens has skyrocketed, and they are less active and sleep less.
Some 23% of Jewish Israeli adults surveyed who were not directly exposed to the terrorist attack suffer from PTSD, the research found. The figure is three times that which Americans in New York City experienced following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.
