TIME FOR LIFE

TIME FOR LIFE: The Surprising Ways Americans Use Their Time
John P. Robinson and Geoffrey Godbey
University Park, Pennsylvania: Penn State University Press
367 pages, hardback, $24.95
ISBN 0-271-01652-3

Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg

It's a fact that Americans work more and sleep less than they did 30 years ago, right? Wrong, say the authors of Time for Life. Their findings counter those in a number of recent popular books. They also challenge assertions made by leading members of the sleep community, who have described a virtual epidemic of sleeplessness in America.

Robinson is a professor of sociology and director of the Americans' Use of Time Project at the University of Maryland, College Park, and Godbey is a professor of leisure studies at Penn State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.

They draw their conclusions from time-diaries. Once every 10 years, starting in 1965, they asked cross-section samples of Americans to keep track of what they did minute-by-minute throughout a 24-hour day. The nearly 9000 respondents reported their activities in their own words, rather than using categories chosen by the researchers. Some persons listed more than 40 activities, while others described fewer than 10, even when asked for more details.

Robinson and Godbey contend that time diary information is more reliable than time estimates, a research technique used by, as one example, the US Census Bureau. Time estimates are too subjective, these authors suggest. One study they cite found that people vastly over-estimated their visits to a health club, when their replies were checked against computerized sign-in records. Answers to questions such as "How long do you usually sleep?" also do not necessarily jibe with times of reported clock hours of going to bed and getting up.

Some 40 percent of the respondents said the diary day was not a typical one. This raises the question of what constitutes the "typical" days or weeks described in most surveys, and even the answers patients give to physicians about behavior, symptoms, and other aspects of health.

Over three decades, according to the time diary studies, hours of sleep consistently averaged near 8 hours a day. Education and income had little influence on answers. One surprise was that mothers of young children got more sleep than average, perhaps, the authors suggest, because of fatigue.

Despite the reported popularity of late-night television shows, bedtimes generally have gotten earlier since 1965. When people were asked to rank activities they liked to do on a 1 to 10 scale, sleep was second only to sex, earning an 8.5 score, compared to 9.3 for sex.

The time diaries show that work time is decreasing and leisure time expanding. Americans now watch television more than 15 hours a week on average. This compares to less than 3 hours each spent on reading, hobbies, sports, education, and religion, activities that previously filled more hours. Americans allot perhaps 30 minutes a week to sex.

Television, Robinson and Godbey note, promotes the notion of the 'quick fix,' in which problems can be solved in 30 minutes. It ties success and happiness to acquisition and use of material goods. People today feel more pressured than those in times past to meet impossible goals. They say they always race against the clock. That may help explain why Americans often complain they are 'tired all the time.'