Quality sleep plays a critical part in maintaining a healthy lifestyle, but it looks like several NFL fanbases are missing out on some essential shuteye.
BetTexas.com took a break from covering sports betting in Texas and utilized Statista’s 2022 “Hours of Sleep” survey of 1,020 NFL fans to determine which NFL fanbase currently claims the title of most “restless.”
Note this sample only consists of people who declared themselves a fan of a specific NFL team. The percentage listed signifies the number of respondents from each fanbase who “sleep on average six hours or less a night.”
Meet the fanbases in need of some extra slumber.
Most Restless NFL Fanbases
Maybe Dallas fans are just restless for the start of the season, given the Cowboys Super Bowl odds are among the best in the NFL. Dallas is +1500 to win the title, good for sixth in the league.
Playoff Struggles Make for Weary Fans
As the Cowboys well-publicized playoff struggles continue to extend deep into a third decade, it is no wonder a larger than average portion of the fanbase is dealing with restlessness. Thirteen percent of Dallas fans report sleeping less than six hours a night on average, a rate only eclipsed by Buffalo and New York Giants fans.
Meanwhile, fans of division rivals Washington and Philadelphia are sleeping far easier than their counterparts in Dallas and New York, with just 4% of Commanders fans and 3% of Eagles fans failing to average six hours of sleep per night.
Since January 1996 when the Cowboys defeated Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX, the team has won just five playoff games and failed to advance past the divisional round despite a dozen postseason appearances over that span. In total, 12 other NFC teams have reached the Super Bowl since Dallas last made it, with only the Commanders, Minnesota and Detroit sporting longer droughts among conference foes.
Coming off back-to-back 12-5 seasons and featuring the sixth shortest Super Bowl odds, the Cowboys have reasons to feel optimistic about ending this streak of playoff futility in 2023. But a division rival stands in their way. Although no team has repeated as NFC East champion since 2004, the Eagles enter this year as -125 favorites nationally to secure another division crown after ending last season at 14-3 and representing the NFC in Super Bowl LVII — even if there are no Texas betting apps to place that wager.
Dallas sits at +165 to win the NFC East, well above the Giants and Commanders at +850 and +1800 respectively. But that’s still only around a 34% percent implied probability of happening. However, even with these modest divisional odds, DraftKings Sportsbook — there is no DraftKings Texas — gives the Cowboys the third-best playoff chances in the NFC at -230.
As for what else is ailing Dallas fans’ sleep, 35.1% of Texas adults state they average less than seven hours of sleep per data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While that rate is slightly below average nationally, it jumps up to 36.9% of adults when just looking at Dallas County.
In a 2023 study by U.S. News and World Report, Dallas ranked 30th for sleep quality out of the 50 most populated cities in the country. An average adult requires seven to nine hours of sleep a night in order to function properly.
