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More than one-third of U.S. workers spend their paid time off recovering from exhaustion rather than on vacation, according to a recent report by Amerisleep.

Millennials lead the trend, the data showed, with 43% of millennials using PTO for sleep, compared to 34% of Gen X, 33% of Gen Z and just 20% of baby boomers.

“When rest becomes recovery instead of recreation, it’s already a warning sign for both employees and employers. Workers today aren’t as lazy as they may look, but rather depleted,” Rosie Osmun, certified sleep science coach at Amerisleep.com told PropertyCasulty360.com.

“Many are using their hard-earned PTO to simply get back to baseline rather than enjoy life or recharge creatively,” she added. “This pattern reflects a deeper issue where we’ve normalized exhaustion as a badge of productivity. But when nearly four in 10 employees are too tired to take a real vacation, it’s no longer just a wellness concern. It’s now a workforce sustainability problem. The most resilient teams will be those whose leaders recognize that rest is part of performance, and not just a pause from it.”

Key takeaways…

  • Philadelphia, PA, is the sleepiest city, followed by Laredo, TX, and Jersey City, NJ.
  • Fifty-percent of Honolulu, HI, adults sleep fewer than seven hours per night, which is the highest rate of all cities in the study.
  • North Las Vegas, Nevada, has the fewest wellness practitioners, with just 1.4 per 100,000 residents.
  • Thirty-eight percent of Americans would be interested in a vacation designed to improve their sleep.
  • Forty-seven percent of respondents are willing to pay extra for a sleep retreat, up to 25% more.
  • Search interest in “wellness travel” is up 95% over the past two years.

“Burnout is so widespread that people are burning vacation days on basic recovery instead of new experiences,” said Osmun. “This shift shows that rest has become a necessity, not a luxury.”

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