Sleepless In Atlanta

by Michele Cheplic | More from this Blogger

15 Sep 2006 11:59 PM

In previous blogs I have shared with you my travel adventures in Atlanta, Georgia. (Correction. I have raved about my travels to Atlanta, Georgia.) From the weather to the family friendly attractions I cannot think of one bad thing to say about the city where just about every street has been named after the state's official fruit. I even wrote a review where I mentioned that a trip there might inspire you to relocate. Unfortunately, this blog will not be as kind. Recently, I discovered some disturbing news about Atlanta. It seems the Big Peach was the pits in a ranking based on data that said factors in the city deprived people of sleep.

Basically, Atlanta has been the named the worst city for sleeping, according to a pharmaceutical company-funded report. The report says Atlanta residents average 9.7 days of poor sleep each month, more than the 8.4 average reported for the 50 other metropolitan areas that were studied. In addition, the report found commute time was about 34 minutes in Atlanta, which is above the 30 minute average. Nashville, Houston, New York and St. Louis followed Atlanta to round out the five worst places to catch some z's.

Conversely, the survey found the best cities for sleep were in California - Anaheim and Los Angeles were No. 1 and No. 2. Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina came in third, while Minneapolis and Chicago rounded out the best list. Are you as shocked as I was to see that traffic-clogged, smog-filled Los Angeles came in at number two? The researcher who designed the report was a but taken aback by the results, but said he "didn't exactly know why some cities ranked where they did."

Just for the record, I have never had a poor night's sleep in Atlanta. In fact, some of the best places I have ever taken a snooze were in Chicago, Honolulu and Lake Tahoe. How about you?

Learn more about Michele Cheplic

Michele Cheplic was born and raised in Hilo, Hawaii, but now lives in Wisconsin. Michele graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in Journalism.

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