U.S. President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Donald Trump's "shock and awe" approach to leadership in his second term as president seems to have Americans losing sleep, literally, according to a new analysis from Salon.

The piece, hailing from the outlet's senior politics writer Chauncey DeVega, highlighted plausible correlations between Trump's return to power and the declining sleep habits of American adults. According to a recent survey from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, "72 percent of American adults say that sleepiness interferes with their daily activities," while "a large percentage of adults are experiencing more anxiety and stress (53 percent), poor mood (60 percent) and decreased work productivity (42 percent) due to a lack of sleep."

This, DeVega noted, continued a trend found in a 2024 Gallup survey, which saw most respondents agree that they were not getting sufficient sleep and that this was causing them greater stress and anxiety. Another survey from last year, conducted American Psychological Association, also found that significant numbers of adults in the US were experiencing significant stress and anxiety due to the political climate in the country, with 69 percent of respondents "experiencing great anxiety about the presidential election" and 77 percent feeling "significantly worried about the future of the country."

"Such feelings of exhaustion and sleepiness are not being experienced equally," DeVega explained. "The richest Americans are likely tired from counting all of the money that the Trump administration has handed them through tax breaks found in the 'Big Vile Bill,' and other subsidies and deals... But the Americans being targeted by the Trump administration are experiencing a very different type of fatigue. Theirs is rooted in terror, anxiety and profound stress."

This sort of "exhausted country" is "a core part" of Trump's plan for building and maintaining his power, DeVega argued, with his "shock and awe" leadership tactics designed to both undermine "undermine American democracy and society," and leave the voting public too "confused, disoriented, overwhelmed and exhausted" to push back.

"In such an environment, a tired, overwhelmed public is more likely to normalize the cruel and aberrant behavior of the Trump administration because they do not have the cognitive and emotional bandwidth to process all of these horrors," DeVega wrote. "Trump is counting on this. Like his predecessors, he embodies the fears, hopes and collective mood of the nation. He is clearly tired. In that way, he is a mirror for the American people. But while Trump may be merely tired, the American people are truly exhausted."