The sleeping habits of young Chinese people are a cause for concern, while a good night’s sleep has become a luxury for many, according to a report published by the Chinese Sleep Research Society ahead of Tuesday, which marks the Chinese version of World Sleep Day.
The report, based on a survey of 60,000 people aged between 10 and 45, shows that only 11 percent of the young people enjoy sound sleep. Most of the others said they often wake in the middle of the night, and about 13 percent said they even suffer from sleeplessness.
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What's been undermining our sleep?
Up to 91 percent of the people surveyed said they could not relax after going to bed, admitting that pressures from work usually undermine their sleep quality. According to the report, most of the respondents said they would choose to sacrifice sleep when bed time clashed with work deadlines.
Lack of self-discipline is another reason for the young people’s lack of Zs. Only 5 percent of those surveyed reported having regular life schedules.
Electronic devices have also been playing an evil role in distracting people from their beds. At least 93 percent of people said they use smartphones directly before going to sleep, while watching TV dramas and shopping online have shortened their sleeping hours.
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Regular internet users, or “netizens,” are one of the communities most affected by sleeplessness therefore. Chinese tech giant Tencent recently jointly conducted a survey with pharmaceutical company Sanofi China on the bedtimes of Chinese netizens.
Among the 8,567 questionnaires they collected from 362 cities across China, nearly 80 percent said they have experienced sleeplessness. Shanghai has the largest population of sleepless netizens, with over 87 percent of the surveyed people admitting that they had suffered from lack of sleep. It was followed by Guangzhou, Changsha, Beijing and Shenzhen.
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Analysis shows that pressure from living and working in first-tier cities has contributed to poor sleep quality, while experts speculated that nightlife may be one of the reasons for Changsha’s featuring so high up the list.
What harms can sleeplessness do?
Wang Yuping, doctor of neurology from Capital Medical University’s Xuanwu Hospital, said that Chinese people tend to underestimate the harm done by sleeplessness.
Wang cited investigation showing that more than 70 percent of people have no idea that sleeplessness can lead to diseases including diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity or even cancer, and about 40 percent are not aware that sleeplessness could cause mental problems such as depression.
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Qu Shan, a psychiatrist from Peking University People’s Hospital, said that having a regular life schedule is the easiest way to improve sleep quality, and if one has been suffering from sleep disorders for a sustained period of time, then medical treatment is advised.
World Sleep Day, which is marked on the Friday of the second full week of March in the rest of the world, was introduced to China in 2002 by the Chinese Medical Association to raise public awareness about sleep.
