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A land of sleep-deprived zombies
In 2006, says a Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications survey released this fall, Japanese men slept on average 7 hours 49 minutes per night. That has Weekly Playboy (Dec 3) positively seething. “Who sleeps 7 hours 49 minutes per night?” it demands.
Certainly, nobody within its circle of acquaintances. Seven hours and 49 minutes? That’s a decent night’s sleep. If the average man is getting all the sleep he needs, why, the magazine asks, are “so many of us walking around like sleep-deprived zombies?”
The ministry spokesperson who fielded Weekly Playboy’s skeptical query insisted its survey was broad enough to accurately reflect the male population as a whole. Unconvinced, the magazine conducted its own informal survey, inquiring of individuals in various walks of life how much sleep they get.
“Barely four hours,” replies a 30-year-old bakery manager. “I go to bed at 10 and get up at 2 a.m. to go to the bakery. Preparing the dough takes a lot of time. At lunch I catnap for half an hour. It’s like that every day.”
“Two hours,” says a bar owner. His life is busier than most. Beginning at 6 p.m., he makes the rounds of his regular customers to invite them over. He opens for business at 11, closes at 8 a.m., then brings the crowd home with him for breakfast. The party breaks up around noon and he hits the sack — but before deep sleep can claim him he’s up again to begin preparations for another day.
He’s young now – 31 — but how long will he be able to stand such a pace?Well, bartenders and bakery owners work odd hours, it can’t be helped, but surely civil servants lead more regular, sleep-enriched lives?
“Four hours,” mutters a bleary-eyed 28-year-old Kasumigaseki bureaucrat. “It’s paua-hara (power harassment). My boss yells at me, ‘This is your career! Take it seriously!’ Every day he loads me down with more documents than I can possibly cope with, and I can’t go home until he says it’s ok.”
What about an elementary school teacher? If anyone can approach seven hours, 49 minutes of sleep a night, it ought to be someone whose place of business ostensibly shuts down at 3:30.
So reasons Weekly Playboy, but “six hours,” says a frazzled 26-year-old teacher. “And it’s not enough, it doesn’t dispel my fatigue. As a teacher, you’re dealing with small children who simply know no limits; you have to watch them every minute. I finally get home and just pass out.”
Many a marriage or relationship has fallen victim to the immoderate demands of this workaholic society, Weekly Playboy says.
“There’s this woman I used to call my wife...” wistfully muses a 39-year-old Tokyo taxi driver. “I get to the depot by 4 p.m., and then I’m behind the wheel for 11 hours straight. At 3 a.m., I sleep in my cab for two hours, then it’s back on the road until 9 in the morning. By the time I get home, it’s after 10. Five hours’ sleep, and then back to work.”
His wife couldn’t take it any more, he says. She finally left him.
A 24-year-old medical intern claims an average of three and half hours’ sleep while on duty, “but,” he adds, “you never know when an emergency patient is going to be brought in, so I’m in a constant state of tension, and suddenly for no reason, I’ll spring up out of bed.”
Temples — those are sleepy places, right? Dare we suppose that a priest might enjoy his seven hours 49 minutes’ worth? “Well, by rights, I should be able to sleep from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m.,” says a 26-year-old Osaka Buddhist priest, “but, you see, we’re basically open 24 hours a day. You can never tell when someone will die during the night and you’ll be called to the bedside at 3 a.m. to recite sutras. Or in the dead of night, the phone will ring: ‘The family is quarreling over the deceased’s property, we’d like you to settle it.’”
Is there anyone out there who gets a supposed average night’s sleep? If so, would he kindly come forward?
November 23, 2007
Japan Today Discussion
26 Total Messages (Click here to show all)
15 Messages Shown (Scroll down for most recent)
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies |  |
nitro   (Nov 26 2007 - 14:30) | Rate | Report |
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 26 2007 - 15:38) | Rate | Report |
Also, this data flies in the face of research suggesting that anywhere from 22 to 50% of the Japanese population suffers from insomnia. Which is correct?
In any case, the suggestion that the average working man in Japan is getting 7.8 hours of sleep per night just can't be true. I just conducted an informal poll of staff around me right now and they (4 men, aged 40 to 50) all said they got around 6 hours of sleep per night. One woman said she regularly got about 4 per night. So something obviously isn't quite right with these numbers or the way they're being reported. I know I get only about 6 hours per night, and I don't even participate in the self-flagellation of leaving at 8 or 9 at night, long after most everyone else has gone home, like some of my coworkers. I use the waking hours I'm away from work to actually enjoy my life. My wife puts in 12-hours days regularly, not because she wants to, but because she has to due to the mountain of work that continues to pile up on her desk, work that realistically could keep two people occupied full-time. This data is overly kind to the actual status of the average Japanese male worker.
| Methinks there's been some fudging... | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 26 2007 - 16:09) | Rate | Report |
Releasing such a rosy picture of the average Japanese male's sleep patterns could ostensibly be a way to say, "Hey, we're working our asses off and getting a good night's sleep while doing it, too!" But the more likely result is that the vast majority of Japanese male workers who are in actuality sleeping less than 7 hours per night will likely react with a dismissive, "Wish I were whoever this lucky bastard is who's getting so much sleep, 'cause it sure isn't me."
| nice work | |
| hosomaki (Nov 26 2007 - 22:53) | Rate | Report |
this is the kind of investigative reporting JT could use
but you do make a pretty big jump here!
but seriously nice work
more at-work polls and their results please
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 26 2007 - 23:48) | Rate | Report |
The four people I asked simply confirmed what I already suspected, based on an educated guess from, wait for it.... observation. And if I were to go out and ask 1000 people tomorrow from a broad cross section of the male workforce in my area of Japan, I'm willing to bet this month's paycheck that, yup, they aren't sleeping anywhere close to 7.8 hours a night. Again, I should have qualified my initial statement to stave off criticisms.
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 27 2007 - 08:16) | Rate | Report |
The four people I asked simply confirmed what I already suspected, based on an educated guess from, wait for it.... observation. And if I were to go out and ask 1000 people tomorrow from a broad cross section of the male workforce in my area of Japan, I'm willing to bet this month's paycheck that, yup, they aren't sleeping anywhere close to 7.8 hours a night. Again, I should have qualified my initial statement to stave off criticisms.
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| hosomaki (Nov 27 2007 - 13:11) | Rate | Report |
thanks for spending your precious time to expand on your original premise, it certainly has settled my anxieties
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 27 2007 - 15:22) | Rate | Report |
| korekara mo | |
| hosomaki (Nov 27 2007 - 17:01) | Rate | Report |
please be nice to me from now on too
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 27 2007 - 20:43) | Rate | Report |
| Ok time for an informal poll | |
| nimbus (Nov 29 2007 - 10:26) | Rate | Report |
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| LetFreedomRing (Nov 29 2007 - 12:45) | Rate | Report |
| funny stuff | |
| urko (Nov 29 2007 - 12:59) | Rate | Report |
| Can't be real numbers | |
| tkoind (Nov 29 2007 - 14:20) | Rate | Report |
But the government here is pretty clueless or in denial about a lot of social issues regarding healthy workers. Like the laws preventing too much overtime that no company respects. Or the laws providing for off time that few companies respect.
Divorce, suicide, stress related illness, violent crime. These are issues caused, at least in part, by unbalanced lives with too little time for sleep, family and self. More time for sleep and health maintenance is needed. More time for family and relaxation. Longer vacations. These are tools to improve things here.
| A land of sleep-deprived zombies | |
| frontandcentre (Dec 17 2007 - 16:13) | Rate | Report |
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