
How much the average American would pay for some peace and quiet
The average American would pay $2,521 for a day of peace and quiet — while parents would pay $1,147 more.
That's according to a new survey of 2,000 Americans (30% of whom are parents), which explored the importance of quality time to recharge and the barriers to getting enough of it.
Results showed the average respondent only gets 9.5 hours per month to themselves with the biggest barriers being family obligations (50%), work commitments (32%) and financial constraints (24%).
8 The average American would pay $2,521 for a day of peace and quiet — while parents would pay $1,147 more.
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8 The most frequent barriers to getting an adequate amount of sleep is work, commitments, and financial constraints.
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Social obligations (22%) and guilt for finally getting free time (13%) were also listed as reasons respondents don't get the alone time they crave.
A little over half of respondents (53%) said they need more alone time than they're currently getting. And the lengths respondents said they'll go to were surprising.
Nearly 38% of respondents admit to lying to a partner, friends or family in order to get some time to themselves.
8 The average person claims they needs more alone time than they are currently getting.
fizkes – stock.adobe.com
The most common lie shared among participants was 'I'm not feeling well' (54%), followed by 'I have a lot of work to do' (40%), 'I have a headache' (33%), 'I have an appointment' (33%) and 'My phone's about to die, so I can't talk' (32%).
8 Out of 2,000 respondents, the average hours people get to themselves is only 9.5 per month.
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8 Often times people will lie to lie to their partner, family, or friends, just to get some alone time.
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The survey, conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Apple Vacations, pinpointed the dollar amount people attribute to certain elements of relaxation and found the average parent polled values a lazy morning to themselves at $325.
It's no wonder then that people would be willing to pay an average of $339.8 for just one extra hour of sleep.
And the feeling extends to vacations, with 40% of respondents saying they've booked a trip specifically for peace and quiet.
8 The price people are willing to pay for an extra our of sleep is an average #339.8.
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8 According to parents, a lazy morning to themselves is valued at $325.
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'In a world where silence feels like a luxury, it's clear people aren't just craving quiet,' said Dana Studebaker, Vice President of Marketing, Consumer Brands, Apple Vacations. 'They're willing to invest in it. Everyone deserves moments that are truly their own.'
How would respondents spend this precious, uninterrupted time alone?
One in six said they'd be happy doing anything as long as it wasn't a chore or obligation. And one in eight said they'd want to binge TV or movies (13%) or spend the day at the beach (12%).
8 How people spend their precious time alone varies.
Antonioguillem – stock.adobe.com
Interestingly, two-thirds agreed (66%) that visiting family does not count as a restful vacation.
'When people are willing to spend hundreds — or even thousands — just for a little peace and quiet, it says a lot about how rare true rest has become,' added Michael Lowery, Head of Global Consumer Brands, Apple Vacations. 'Sometimes the most valuable thing you can give yourself is time without expectation.'
Survey methodology:
Talker Research surveyed 2,000 Americans (18+ who traveled in the past 12 months); the survey was commissioned by Apple Vacations and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between April 22 – April 28, 2025.

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Chicago Tribune
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Ah, it finally feels like summer in the city. We can't wait to spend as much time outside as possible. But did you know your favorite Chicago park might have a secret past? These are some of the unexpected things we found when looking through the Tribune's archives. In parks featuring lagoons, Park District officers were kept busy chasing poachers who fished without a permit. Some parks — Lincoln, Garfield and Washington among them — had holding cells in their field houses. The Park District police were consolidated into the Chicago Police Department at 12:01 a.m., Jan. 1, for the territorial border agreed to by the Pottawattomie and the U.S. government, this park formerly featured a zoo. The first animal housed there was a single black bear named Teddy. It was donated by Frank Kellogg, president of the now-defunct Park Avenue Park District. Pheasant, ducks and an opossum followed. 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Burials took place in the Chicago City Cemetery, which was north of North Avenue along the lakefront and outside the then-city limits. Bodies were later relocated to other cemeteries due to a variety of factors — city expansion northward, health risks associated with rising lake levels and their proximity to decaying bodies buried in shallow graves, and a lawsuit concerning one of the cemetery's sections. But some were probably left behind, Helen Sclair discovered. Her suspicions were confirmed after visiting the Illinois Regional Archives Depository at Northeastern Illinois University. Tribune reporter Ron Grossman wrote, 'Sclair seems to have been the first to guess that the archive might contain records of the old lakefront cemetery. … Eventually, she found more than 600 relevant documents, had them photographed, then copied by hand their virtually illegible 19th century handwritings.' 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The breezes through the shelter were believed to cure babies suffering from tuberculosis and other diseases. Free health services, milk and lunches were provided to more than 30,000 children each summer until 1939, when the sanitarium closed. Major reconstruction of Lake Shore Drive led to the demolition of the building's front entrance. During World War II, the structure became an official recreation center for the United Service Organization. The Chicago Park District converted the building to Theatre on the Lake in the early 1950s. Today it's a lakefront restaurant and venue that hosts concerts and theater named for Stephen A. Douglas, the senator from Illinois and noted Lincoln debater, the Chicago Park District board of commissioners voted on Nov. 18, 2020, to officially rename this park in honor of abolitionists Anna Murray Douglass and Frederick Douglass. Though many parks around the city now have swimming pools, Douglass Park became the first to have one devoted to recreation. 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Thirty-foot-tall palm trees flourished under the conservatory's main dome and exotic fruits trees, ferns, grasses and vines were also mixed in. Washington Park long a site of change, controversyThe conservatory held exhibitions throughout the year, but plans were made in 1936, to tear it down. Its structure was deemed weak and too expensive to repair. A Park District police station was later constructed at 57th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue. The DuSable Black History Museum and Education Center opened there in South Shore neighborhood was, like much of Chicago, a place where ethnic groups came and went. Yet above the club's porte-cochere, its arched entrance way, was a sign proclaiming that the South Shore Country Club was: 'For Members Only.' 'Until it closed in 1974, the club was, in the coded language of the time, 'restricted,'' Grossman wrote in 2016. 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Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.


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4 hours ago
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