wellness
Old Town Residents Battle Sleep Loss From Screen Time, Noise, Schedules
Screen habits, street noise and irregular schedules are cutting into rest for many locals.
How we reported this
Sixty-two percent of Old Town adults surveyed in June reported sleeping fewer than six hours on weeknights, down from 48 percent in the same poll two years earlier.
The drop tracks with longer commutes on Wells Street after hybrid work schedules tightened and with residents keeping phones in bed longer. City noise from late-night deliveries along North Avenue adds another layer. Local wellness groups note that the pattern shows up most among people between 28 and 45 who live in walk-up buildings without good window seals.
Local programs tracking the shift
The Old Town Triangle Association began offering free sleep workshops at its community room on North Avenue in March. Attendance has doubled each month. A block east, the Wells Street Yoga studio added a 7:30 p.m. wind-down class in May that now caps at 25 people and fills within hours of posting. Both groups report participants citing the same three issues: blue-light exposure after 10 p.m., deliveries rumbling past bedroom windows, and the habit of checking work email one last time before lights out.
Data released July 1 by the Chicago Department of Public Health showed that adults in zip code 60610 logged an average of 5.8 hours of sleep on tracked nights in the first quarter of 2026. That figure sits below the 6.4-hour citywide average and matches the trend line seen in denser blocks near Lincoln Park.
Steps that show results on the ground
Residents who joined the Triangle Association workshops cut phone use after 9 p.m. and added blackout curtains; follow-up check-ins two weeks later found an average gain of 42 minutes of sleep. The yoga studio now sells earplugs and white-noise machines at its front desk for $12 and $45. People who combined the class with a consistent 10 p.m. cutoff for screens reported falling asleep 18 minutes faster on average. Anyone experiencing ongoing sleep trouble is advised to speak with a physician at the nearby North Avenue Health Center before trying new routines.