Late nights
The weekend’s home games could have an impact on trips and travel times
Less sleep but better moods are side effects of the Series.
If your eyelids were drooping and your feet dragging after staying up late to watch the Astros take home their firstever World Series win Wednesday night, you weren’t alone. Men and women across Houston got less sleep after that 11-inning slugfest than they’re accustomed to.
On any given evening, the average American drifts off to sleep at 11:24 p.m., according to the folks at the smart-alarm clock, Sleep Cycle. But here in Houston, more than a million Houstonians were still glued to their TVs at that time, as the Astros continued battling through extra innings. Naturally, locals made their way to bed later than they normally would.
On average, Houstonians closed their eyes at 11:31 p.m. — seven minutes later than they called it quits the previous night after the first World Series game ended in less than two-and-a-half hours. Folks in Los Angeles, on the other hand, made it to bed an average of 11 minutes earlier than they did the prior night, when they won the first game.
As a result, Houstonians got less sleep than those in L.A., who benefit from being two time zones behind.
Typically, Americans get seven hours and 12 minutes of shut-eye a night. But the late game led to an average of six hours and 56 minutes here in Houston — 16 minutes less than you’d expect. Those in Los Angeles got a flat seven hours of sleep.
But while a lack of sleep is known to make people grumpier than usual, that wasn’t the case in Houston Thursday.
“Houston clocked in a slightly better sleep quality and woke up in a better mood than L.A.,” said Maciek Drejak, founder of Sleep Cycle, which surveyed 99,725 users to gather the World Series data.
Maybe you noticed this newfound niceness on the roads Thursday.
Dinah Massie, a spokeswoman for Transtar, said that while she didn’t notice any significant changes in traffic patterns Thursday morning due to people getting a later start, she did notice an uptick in courtesy on her own morning commute.
“I don’t really know of anything that made this morning particularly bad. There was a crash on 59 and a stall on I-10, but those things happen every morning,” she said. “But people were nicer this morning. No one cut me off, and I saw someone wave ‘thank you,’ when they let someone in.”
A rare feat on the careat-car circuit of roadways that flow through the Bayou City.
While there were no glaring effects on the morning commute Thursday, future wins may bring bigger changes, said Tony Voigt, a program manager at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute.
“I’m sure that a few folks woke up a little later than usual today, and that might have actually had a positive impact on traffic if they delayed their trip a few minutes” by spreading out demand on the roadways, he said. “If the Astros win here in five on Sunday, you could potentially see some impacts on trips and travel times on Monday morning.”
If Thursday morning is any indication, tired but happy Houston drivers would be cool with that.