A report by the Centers for Disease and Control (CDC) has found that single parents, and in particular single mothers, are the most sleep-deprived people in the United States, according to a story on techtimes.com.

The CDC report says a full 44 percent of single mothers living at home with their children 18 and under, fell short of getting the recommended amount of sleep each night, currently set at seven hours per night.

Single dads fared slightly better, coming in at 38 percent, but still were short of the recommended amount of sleep.  Single parents also were more likely to get a poorer quality of sleep and to suffer from insomnia as well.  Many reported using sleep aids in an attempt to log more sleep time.

For a comparison, only 33 percent of U.S. adults living in a two-parent arrangement fell below the 7-hour recommendation, according to the CDC report.

Studies have shown a lack of sleep can lead to many diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and depression, and sleep-deprived people are more likely to be involved in automobile crashes and workplace accidents.

Other previous studies have even shown a link between an increased risk of cancer in people that do not get enough sleep on a regular basis.

Hardly anyone was surprised at the finding of the largest group of sleep-deprived adults was the single mother.  The demands of parenthood are significantly greater on those with no partner, especially when young children are involved, and single mothers often sacrifice sleep to meet the demands of work and family responsibilities.

The CDC used data collected from the 2013-2014 Nation Health Interview Survey, conducted annually on some 44,000 participant, about equally divided between men and women.

The data found that women in general were more likely to be sleep deprived than men, with 57 percent of single mothers reporting they awoke feeling not well rested.  Forty-six percent of women living in two-parent families also reported not being refreshed, but 39 percent of women in a home without children also reported the same.

Dr. Stuart Quan, a sleep medicine specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, said, “In virtually all epidemiological studies of sleep, women tend to have more sleep-related complaints than men.”