How many people grind their teeth?

Maybe your partner mentioned a grinding noise at night, or your dentist pointed out worn edges on your teeth, and now you want to know whether this is unusual. It is a fair question, and the reassuring answer is that you are in very large company.

Below I go through what the best studies say about how common bruxism is, how sleep and daytime clenching differ, how children compare with adults, and how stress fits in. I also explain why the numbers you find online can disagree so much.

In short

Roughly one in five people grind or clench their teeth. A 2024 meta-analysis of 176 studies put global bruxism prevalence at about 22 per cent, with sleep bruxism at 21 per cent and awake bruxism at 23 per cent (Zieliński et al., 2024). Most of these figures come from questionnaires, so treat them as estimates.

• Daytime clenching appears to be at least as common as grinding in your sleep.
• Questionnaire figures and sleep lab figures often disagree, so no single number is exact.
• Stress and anxiety are linked to more grinding, but the evidence for cause and effect is weak.

How common is teeth grinding in adults?

A large 2024 overview from Polish researchers pooled 176 population studies published between 2003 and 2023. They estimated that 22 per cent of people have some form of bruxism, 21 per cent sleep bruxism and 23 per cent awake bruxism, and concluded that about one in four people may clench or grind while awake (Zieliński et al., 2024).

An earlier systematic review was much more cautious. It found that only seven of 35 adult studies were good enough to extract figures from. Those studies put general bruxism at 8 to 31.4 per cent, awake bruxism at 22.1 to 31 per cent and frequent sleep bruxism at around 12.8 per cent. The same review saw bruxism decrease in older people (Manfredini et al., 2013).

A large telephone survey of 13,057 people in the UK, Germany and Italy found that 8.2 per cent ground their teeth in their sleep at least once a week. Half of them had consequences such as aching muscles on waking or dental work, and 4.4 per cent met the formal criteria for sleep bruxism (Ohayon et al., 2001).

Is sleep bruxism or awake bruxism more common?

The two are different behaviours. An international expert consensus defines sleep bruxism as jaw muscle activity during sleep, either rhythmic or not, and awake bruxism as repeated or sustained tooth contact, or bracing and pushing the jaw, while you are awake (Lobbezoo et al., 2018).

In the 2024 meta-analysis the two were close, with awake bruxism slightly ahead at 23 per cent against 21 per cent (Zieliński et al., 2024). Awake bruxism includes clenching and bracing without any grinding, so there may be nothing for anyone else to hear. If daytime clenching sounds familiar, our teeth grinding page explains both types in more detail.

Is bruxism more common in women?

It depends on which study you read. The 2024 meta-analysis found both sleep and awake bruxism more often in women than in men, with the gap larger for awake bruxism, and it described bruxism as a significant factor among women (Zieliński et al., 2024). The earlier adult review, working from far fewer studies, found bruxism unrelated to sex (Manfredini et al., 2013).

Where you live may play a part too, or at least how researchers ask the question there. Sleep bruxism estimates ranged from 31 per cent in North America to 19 per cent in Asia, and awake bruxism from 30 per cent in South America to 18 per cent in Europe (Zieliński et al., 2024).

How common is teeth grinding in children?

Cleveland Clinic notes that bruxism is most common in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, and that children often outgrow it by adolescence (Cleveland Clinic, 2023).

The numbers for children are especially uncertain. A systematic review of sleep bruxism in children found that every usable study relied on parents' reports, and the figures ranged from 3.5 to 40.6 per cent. Grinding usually became less common with age and showed no difference between boys and girls, but the spread was too wide to give one reliable estimate (Manfredini et al., 2013). In the 2024 meta-analysis, children and teenagers had lower rates than adults in most regions, for example 16 per cent against 23 per cent for sleep bruxism in Europe (Zieliński et al., 2024). If you are worried about your child's grinding, the NHS suggests seeing a dentist (NHS, 2026).

Why do the figures vary so much?

Mostly because of how bruxism is measured, and asking people gives a different answer from recording them while they sleep. A study from Brazil tested 1,042 people from the general population with both questionnaires and an overnight sleep recording (polysomnography). Questionnaires alone suggested 12.5 per cent had sleep bruxism. The sleep recording alone found 7.4 per cent, and only 5.5 per cent were positive on both (Maluly et al., 2013).

The 2024 meta-analysis points the other way for sleep lab data, with 43 per cent across four polysomnography studies, though the confidence interval ran from 17 to 75 per cent. The authors note that most of their 176 studies used custom questionnaires or reports from participants or their parents, which adds a lot of noise (Zieliński et al., 2024).

The 2018 expert consensus adds a deeper reason. It says bruxism in otherwise healthy people is a behaviour rather than a disorder, one that can be a risk factor for problems or sometimes even protective. It recommends assessing it on a continuum instead of using a fixed cut-off for who "has" bruxism (Lobbezoo et al., 2018). In practice, studies use different definitions and thresholds, which is one reason their figures disagree. Many people also do not know they grind, because it often happens during sleep, which makes it hard to count (Cleveland Clinic, 2023). Both self-report and instrumental tests such as muscle activity recordings are accepted ways to assess it (Lobbezoo et al., 2018).

How are stress and bruxism linked in the numbers?

The NHS names stress and anxiety as the most common cause of teeth grinding (NHS, 2026), and Cleveland Clinic lists stress and anxiety among the causes and says feeling overwhelmed and stressed can result in bruxism (Cleveland Clinic, 2023).

The population data support a link, though a modest one. In the UK, German and Italian survey, people who described a highly stressful life and people with anxiety each had about 1.3 times the odds of reporting sleep bruxism. Heavy drinking and obstructive sleep apnoea carried higher odds, at 1.8 each (Ohayon et al., 2001). A 2021 review found that adults with sleep bruxism reported more stress symptoms and had higher levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. The authors rated the quality of that evidence as very low and asked for better studies (Polmann et al., 2021).

So stress is linked with more grinding, but it is one factor among several and the studies cannot show it is the cause. Our article on whether stress can cause jaw pain looks at what stress does to your jaw day to day, and the piece on sleep apnoea and teeth grinding covers the breathing side.

Try it: a two-week jaw log

Since so much of the research rests on self-report, your own observations are worth something. This is the log I ask people to keep before we talk about bruxism in physiotherapy.

1. Set three or four random reminders on your phone during the day. Each time one goes off, notice whether your teeth are touching and whether your jaw muscles feel braced.
2. Each morning, rate any jaw ache, tired chewing muscles or temple headache from 0 to 10.
3. Ask anyone who shares your room whether they have heard grinding, and write down the nights they mention.
4. Add a word on how stressful the day was, along with alcohol and caffeine, since both are linked to sleep bruxism in surveys (Ohayon et al., 2001).
5. After two weeks, look for patterns and take the log to your dentist or physiotherapist.

In my clinical judgement, aching on waking points more towards grinding or clenching in your sleep, while frequent tooth contact during the reminders points more towards awake clenching. Many people have a bit of both.

The log will not give you a diagnosis, but it turns a vague feeling into something a professional can work with.

How JawBuddy helps

JawBuddy is a digital companion for guided jaw exercises and self-management. JawBuddy Therapy includes a daily tooth contact check.

It does not replace an individual diagnosis from a qualified healthcare professional.

When should you see a dentist or doctor?

Urgent: ask for an urgent GP appointment or call 111 in the UK if:

• you are unable to eat or drink, or you find it hard to open your mouth fully or your jaw is locking (NHS TMD, 2023),
• you have vision problems such as double vision or loss of vision (NHS TMD, 2023).

Not urgent: see a dentist if:

• you grind your teeth and have tooth damage or sensitive teeth (NHS, 2026),
• you grind your teeth and have pain in your jaw, face or ear (NHS, 2026),
• your partner says you grind in your sleep, or you are worried about your child grinding (NHS, 2026).

A dentist may suggest a mouth guard or splint for night-time grinding (NHS, 2026). If you would rather explore other options first, see our page on night guard alternatives.

Grinding is common, and that is useful to know

Being one of many people who grind or clench does not mean you have to live with sore muscles or worn teeth. Start the two-week log tonight and bring it to your next dental check-up.

If your jaw already aches, our jaw pain page is a good next step.