Health Health ministry urges Japanese adults to sleep more

thomas · 4 Oct 2023

Japan's population is notoriously sleep-deprived. The Health Ministry has now urged Japanese adults to sleep for at least six hours a night. According to a 2019 survey, 37.5 per cent of men and 40.6 per cent of women sleep less than six hours a day on average.

I am one of them.

Japanese sleep an average of seven hours and 22 minutes a night, the shortest among 33 countries surveyed by the OECD in 2021. In response to this alarming data, the ministry's draft guidelines present recommended amounts of sleep by age group: six hours or more for adults; 11 to 14 hours for 1- to 2-year-olds; 10 to 13 hours for 3- to 5-year-olds; nine to 12 hours for elementary school children; and eight to 10 hours for junior and senior high school students. [...] Experts believe six to eight hours of sleep each day is ideal for adults, since depression, cancer, stroke, heart disease and other conditions are lowest among people who sleep around seven hours a day. However, the optimal amount of sleep can vary from person to person, depending on age, daily activities and other factors.

Too much sleep, however, isn't beneficial either: older adults are advised to avoid sleeping too much as they tend to spend more time in bed and naps. Also, some reports suggest that sleeping more than eight hours a day increases the risk of death for older people.

Health ministry urges 6 or more hours of sleep for adults | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis

mdchachi · 4 Oct 2023

As people get older and nearer death they seem to sleep more but I'm not convinced it's a causal factor. On the other hand becoming less active and more sedentary does seem to have a distinct negative effect.

Health Health ministry urges Japanese adults to sleep more

thomas

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mdchachi

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