Gun Ownership Does Not Improve Sleep, Study Says

Owning a gun does not affect a person’s sleep, regardless of their ethnicity, urbanicity, education, employment or marital status, income, religion or political affiliation, according to a new study.

ST. LOUIS-February 17, 2020 — A new study published in the Preventive Medicine journal concluded gun ownership does not impact a person’s sleep disturbance.

Researcher and assistant professor at the University of Arizona’s School of Sociology, Terrence Hill, helped conduct the research, which was based off of his 2019 study on gun ownership and fear. The study included data based off of random U.S. population samples from 2010 to 2018 and showed no change, even among different human demographics.

“We find that gun owners and non-gun owners tend to exhibit similar sleep outcomes,” Hill said.

Hill said owning a gun could help some people feel safer at night and sleep better, but this belief was not backed up by data on a population level.

Steven King, owner of Metro Shooting Supplies, a local gun shop, said he carries a gun 15 hours a day but agrees with Hill’s findings. King said St. Louis is no exception to Hill’s findings.

“Everybody wants to make St. Louis out as a gun-riddled, bullet-riddled community because of our homicide rate,” he said. “For most people who own a gun, it’s just part of their everyday life.”

Hill said this is just the beginning of research on gun ownership and its effect on sleep and to always be cautious of anything that claims to help a person get better sleep.