IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v13y2004i1p1-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Insomnia, biological clock, and the bedtime decision: an economic perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Gideon Yaniv

Abstract

While insomnia can be a symptom of numerous mental and physical illnesses, it is frequently diagnosed as a sleep disorder in its own right, caused mainly by stressful life events or by non‐synchronization of individuals' biological sleep–wake cycle with the one they choose to practice. Because of irregular work schedules, late‐night entertainment, or rapid crossing of several time zones, individuals might retire to bed earlier or later than their biological bedtime, experiencing difficulties in falling asleep. The present paper develops a simple economic model of the bedtime decision, viewing the individual as a rational decision‐maker who determines her insomnia level through consciously weighing the cost and benefit of deviating from her biological bedtime. The model is then used to examine the individual's response to stress, yielding a prediction which is consistent with observed behavior, although not with sleep therapists' recommendations. Finally, the model is applied to the case of transmeridian flights, explaining jet lag as a rational adjustment to a misalignment between the individual's slow‐to‐adapt internal clock and her external environment. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Gideon Yaniv, 2004. "Insomnia, biological clock, and the bedtime decision: an economic perspective," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:13:y:2004:i:1:p:1-8
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.810
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.810
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.810?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Grossman, Michael, 1972. "On the Concept of Health Capital and the Demand for Health," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 80(2), pages 223-255, March-Apr.
    2. Hamermesh, Daniel S & Soss, Neal M, 1974. "An Economic Theory of Suicide," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 83-98, Jan.-Feb..
    3. Biddle, Jeff E & Hamermesh, Daniel S, 1990. "Sleep and the Allocation of Time," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 98(5), pages 922-943, October.
    4. Hoffman, Emily P, 1977. "The Deeper Economics of Sleeping: Important Clues toward the Discovery of Activity X," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 85(3), pages 647-649, June.
    5. Becker, Gary S & Murphy, Kevin M, 1988. "A Theory of Rational Addiction," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(4), pages 675-700, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Maclean Johanna Catherine & Hill Terrence D., 2017. "Economic Conditions at School Leaving and Sleep Patterns Across the Life Course," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 17(2), pages 1-37, April.
    2. Jara-Díaz, Sergio R. & Rosales-Salas, Jorge, 2020. "Time use: The role of sleep," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1-20.
    3. Christian Pfeifer, 2015. "UnfairWage Perceptions and Sleep: Evidence from German Survey Data," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 135(4), pages 413-428.
    4. Eleonora Patacchini & Xiaodong Liu & Edoardo Rainone, 2013. "The Allocation of Time in Sleep: A Social Network Model with Sampled Data," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 162, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    5. Yaniv, Gideon, 2008. "Obsessive-compulsive disorder and behavioral therapy: A rational-choice perspective," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 405-415, May.
    6. Tinna Asgeirsdottir & Gylfi Zoega, 2011. "On the economics of sleeping," Mind & Society: Cognitive Studies in Economics and Social Sciences, Springer;Fondazione Rosselli, vol. 10(2), pages 149-164, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher J. Ruhm, 2000. "Are Recessions Good for Your Health?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(2), pages 617-650.
    2. Juan Carlos Trujillo Lora & Wilman Iglesias Pinedo, 2015. "Sueno y asignación de tiempo entre los estudiantes universitarios: el caso de la Universidad del Atlántico," Revista Semestre Económico, Universidad de Medellín, vol. 13(27), pages 99-116, September.
    3. Giuntella, Osea & Mazzonna, Fabrizio, 2019. "Sunset time and the economic effects of social jetlag: evidence from US time zone borders," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 210-226.
    4. Robert Kaestner, 1995. "The Effects of Cocaine and Marijuana Use on Marriage and Marital Stability," NBER Working Papers 5038, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Lurås, Hilde, 2009. "A healthy lifestyle: The product of opportunities and preferences," HERO Online Working Paper Series 2001:11, University of Oslo, Health Economics Research Programme.
    6. Joseph P. Newhouse, 2021. "An Ounce of Prevention," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 35(2), pages 101-118, Spring.
    7. Billari, Francesco C. & Giuntella, Osea & Stella, Luca, 2018. "Broadband internet, digital temptations, and sleep," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 153(C), pages 58-76.
    8. Chen, Li-Shiun & Wang, Ping & Yao, Yao, 2018. "Power of personalized smoking cessation: A unified lifecycle framework for policy evaluation," Working Paper Series 20333, Victoria University of Wellington, School of Economics and Finance.
    9. D. Dragone & H. Strulik, 2017. "Human Health and Aging over an Infinite Time Horizon," Working Papers wp1104, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    10. Brainerd, Elizabeth, 2001. "Economic reform and mortality in the former Soviet Union: A study of the suicide epidemic in the 1990s," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(4-6), pages 1007-1019, May.
    11. Yang, Bijou & Lester, David, 1995. "New directions for economics," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 433-446.
    12. Christian Pfeifer, 2015. "UnfairWage Perceptions and Sleep: Evidence from German Survey Data," Schmollers Jahrbuch : Journal of Applied Social Science Studies / Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 135(4), pages 413-428.
    13. Chavas, Jean-Paul, 2013. "On Demand Analysis and Dynamics: A Benefit Function Approach," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149683, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Rodolfo Nayga, 1999. "A Note on Schooling and Smoking: the issue revisited," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(3), pages 253-258.
    15. Andrew M. Jones & Audrey Laporte & Nigel Rice & Eugenio Zucchelli, 2019. "Dynamic panel data estimation of an integrated Grossman and Becker–Murphy model of health and addiction," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 56(2), pages 703-733, February.
    16. Chen Zhen & Michael K. Wohlgenant, 2006. "Meat Demand under Rational Habit Persistence," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 54(4), pages 477-495, December.
    17. Alessia CAVALIERE & Elisa DE MARCHI & Alessandro BANTERLE, 2013. "Time preference and health: the problem of obesity," Departmental Working Papers 2013-13, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    18. Khwaja, Ahmed & Sloan, Frank & Chung, Sukyung, 2006. "Learning about individual risk and the decision to smoke," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 683-699, July.
    19. Joelle Abramowitz, 2016. "The connection between working hours and body mass index in the U.S.: a time use analysis," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 131-154, March.
    20. Arni, Patrick & Dragone, Davide & Goette, Lorenz & Ziebarth, Nicolas R., 2021. "Biased health perceptions and risky health behaviors—Theory and evidence," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:13:y:2004:i:1:p:1-8. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.