Saturday, September 28, 2013

Interesting Sleep Facts

The U.S. National Sleep Foundation has conducted the first-ever global study on how the representatives of various countries and peoples sleep. It turned out that the British are more likely to sleep naked, and the Japanese change their sheets every three weeks.





The Bedroom Poll research studied the sleeping habits of the citizens of the United States, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Germany, and Japan. It turned out that every third Briton sleeps naked and half of the Japanese and Americans fall asleep whenever they have an opportunity because they do not get enough sleep at night.

The researchers interviewed 1,500 people aged 25 to 55 years. The people in the United States and Japan sleep least of all (on average, 6 hours and 22 minutes). Two-thirds of the Japanese people sleep less than 7 hours. As for other nationalities, 53% of the Americans, 39% of the Britons, and 36% of the Germans sleep less than 7 hours. Little sleep is observed in only a third of the Canadians and 29% of the Mexicans. Fortunately, 45% of the respondents, or almost a half of them, believe that they get good sleep every night (or almost every night). At the same time, 27% of the Britons sometimes do not get enough sleep, and 11% do not manage to sleep properly.

Other interesting cultural differences between countries have been revealed. 62% of the Mexicans and 47% of the Americans pray or meditate before going to bed, and 40% of the Britons drink something soothing (tea, for example) instead of praying. Most often, the respondents watch television before going to bed. It is interesting that 80% (!) have watched boxing at least once before going to bed.

The Japanese like to sleep on one pillow and change the sheets less often than the other nationalities. The Germans and Canadians are more likely to air the bedroom at least once a week (almost 100 % of the Germans, who have taken part in the survey, do this). All the respondents agreed that the quality of sleep depended largely on the smell in the bedroom.