Money, Trouble Sleeping and Over-scheduling major hassles for Americans.

According to The Harris Poll, rising prices are a major “hassle” in Americans’ daily lives. Hassles cause stress and some hassles appear to cause more stress than others, as 82% of Americans have been experienced rising prices this month– an eight point leap from our last Harris Poll on this in 2006. Also one-quarter of Americans (26%) say they have experienced a lot of stress and geography may factor into this as fewer Midwesterners experienced “a lot” of stress than their Eastern counterparts (22% vs. 32%).

These are some of the results from The Harris Poll, a new nationwide survey of 5,210 adults, surveyed online between October 30 and November 3, 2008, by Harris Interactive.

Other findings of this survey include:

* Just under half (47%) of Americans say they have experienced trouble sleeping (47%) and have concerns about health in general (44%). Other hassles experienced in the past month by more than one-quarter of Americans include: not having enough money for basic necessities (35%), illness of a family member (29%), being lonely (27%), and having too much information to process at one time (25%);

* With only two exceptions (abuse of personal privacy and problems with work) women are more likely than men to have experienced each of the daily hassles on the list;

* While the three older generations (Gen X, Baby Boomers and Matures) are all more likely to say they have experienced rising prices, the youngest generation, Echo Boomers (those aged 18-31) are more likely to have experienced having too many things to do, having too much information to process and being lonely in the past month;

* People with children experience more stress and more hassles in relation to money, sleeping, and having too much to do;

* At least four in five in each of the income groups have experienced rising prices, but those with a household income of under $35,000 are more likely than those with an income of over $75,000 to have concerns about money for emergencies (69% vs. 47%), trouble sleeping (56% vs. 43%), and concerns about health in general (54% vs. 39%); and,

* On each of the 14 possible hassles, Republicans are less likely to say they have experienced them than Democrats are.

Americans have stress in their life

One-quarter of Americans (26%) say they have a lot of stress in their life, up from 23% who said this in 2006. An additional 47% say they have some stress while just 4% say they have no stress at all in their life and 23% have not too much stress. Certain demographic groups have more stress than others:

* One-third of Easterners (32%) have a lot of stress in their life compared to just 22% of those who live in the Midwest;

* Gen Xers (those aged 32-43) have the most stress among the generations (33%) followed by Echo Boomers (30%) while only 12% of Matures (those aged 63+) say they have a lot of stress;

* Women are more likely to say they have a lot of stress in their life than men do (30% vs. 22%);

* Over one-third of those with disabilities (35%) say they have a lot of stress compared to 21% of people without disabilities;

* Three in ten Hispanics (30%) say they have a lot of stress compared to 26% of Whites and 21% of African Americans; and,

* One-third of those with children in the household (33%) say they experience a lot of stress while just 23% of those without children say they experience a lot of stress.

So What?

As the economy continues to spiral out of control, it is not surprising that concerns about rising prices have moved up 8 points from 2006. If this economic climate continues over a prolonged period, it would also be expected that the amount of stress in people’s lives would also increase. Right now, just one-quarter of Americans feel a lot of stress. But as worries over unemployment, rising prices and financial woes continue and, perhaps, deepen, that stress level will also increase. These “daily hassles” may be more than just hassles as they occur more frequently.

For more information at http://www.harrisinteractive.com