Technology company Jawbone confirmed what we all probably expected: Londoners lost some sleep the night they voted to leave the European Union.
Jawbone wearers in London went to bed 11 minutes later and woke up 22 minutes earlier than average, missing 35 minutes of sleep the night of Thursday, June 23, the fitness-tracking company said. Votes were counted overnight, revealing in a stunning decision around dawn that Brexit would go forward.
That pattern was echoed across Europe, with citizens of Madrid, Frankfurt, Vienna and Warsaw losing 15 minutes of sleep or more on average, according to Jawbone's data. And they could hardly be blamed, especially if they had investments, as stocks and currencies plummeted worldwide following the news.
Tweet: Last weekend before #Brexit vote. Last chance to sleep.
To be sure, the data is limited: Jawbone trails companies like Apple, Fitbit and Xiaomi when it comes to market share of wearables, according to research firm IDC. Plus, with Brexit coinciding with longer stretches of daylight, Europeans have been sleeping just a little less for the past couple weeks, the data showed.
Still, at 35 minutes less than average, Londoner's Brexit sleep loss dwarfs the 2 to 16 minutes they had been missing in past weeks, Jawbone's data shows. Plus, Jawbone's past data has shown close correlation with major national events like sports games and holidays.