There are any number of things that keep people awake at night. Scary movies. Thinking about the next day’s busy schedule. Pondering the next presidential election.
However, when September rolls around, millions and millions of football fans — and folks using Illinois online sports betting operators to place a wager — add still another sleep-robbing rumination to the list of insomnia-inducing anxieties: Their favorite NFL team.
BetIllinois.com used Statista’s 2022 “Hours of Sleep” survey of NFL fans with 1,020 respondents to find which NFL fanbases claim they are the most “restless.” Note this is just a sample size of NFL fans who claimed to be a fan of a specific team. We measured the percentage of fans who say they follow a particular team and average six hours of sleep per night or less.
Most Restless NFL Fanbases
The percentage represents how many people who “sleep on average six hours or less a night” out of the sample of respondents. In the chart above, hours of sleep per night are rounded to the nearest whole number. Stick with IllinoisBet.com for the best Illinois sportsbook promos as well as more NFL coverage.
Which NFL Fans Are Most Restless?
The fan base that seems to be losing the most sleep are the followers of the Buffalo Bills. That’s somewhat surprising — over the past six seasons, the Bills have gone to the playoffs five times, though they haven’t made it to the Super Bowl.
Bills fans have a league-leading Low Sleep Percentage of 16%. Maybe it’s nagging thoughts of Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes that keeps them awake.
Meanwhile, Chicago Bears fans ranked No. 6 on the restless fans chart with a “low sleep percentage” of 11%. You can follow the Chicago Bears playoff chances all season to see if rest might come more easily in 2023. Bears followers rank just below the slightly more restless fans of Dallas, Atlanta and Green Bay (aggravated, one would think, by the departure of Aaron Rodgers). Fans of the Pittsburgh Steelers, No. 7 on our list, seem slightly more well-rested.
Why Bears Fans Might Lose Sleep
Bears fans have had chronic concerns. Over the last dozen seasons, the Bears have been to the playoffs just twice and have had only one season, the 12-4 campaign in 2018, that was particularly outstanding.
But the franchise has not won a playoff game since the 2010 season and the Chicago Bears Super Bowl odds are understandably long.
Chicago fans could lay awake thinking about the progress of quarterback Justin Fields, an electric performer who needs to find his groove as a passer.
It is little surprise fans of Tampa Bay and Arizona are in the restless Top 10. Followers of the Buccaneers are No. 9 in the low-sleep category and Cardinals fans are No. 10. In both cases, victories figure to be hard to come by this season, causing sleepless nights on both the Florida Gulf Coast and in the Valley of the Sun.
But inexplicably, Kansas City fans — whose team is the defending champion and the consensus Super Bowl favorite at Illinois sports betting apps — are No. 8 on the restless list with a low-sleep percentage of 9%.
Now seriously, with three trips to the Super Bowl and two wins in the past four seasons, what exactly is keeping those Chiefs folks from getting a good night’s rest?
