Chinese residents not getting enough sleep, says report

Beijing: Chinese residents sleep less than seven hours per night, according to the 2024 Chinese National Healthy Sleep White Paper, released by the Chinese Sleep Research Society.

The report said that Chinese residents go to bed after midnight on average, with an average sleep duration of 6.75 hours per night.

The report was based on a survey of over 10,000 people, including students, office workers and retired employees.

The report showed that 28% of respondents sleep less than 6 hours and 64% have poor sleep quality. Most people have experienced sleep disturbances such as nocturnal awakenings, early awakenings, having trouble falling asleep and nocturnal urination, the report said.

The report also found that 59% of respondents suffer from insomnia while only 19% have no sleep disorders.

Only 29% of respondents go to bed before 11pm while 47% go to bed after midnight and 13% go to bed after 2am. Among them, the post-00s generation has an average bedtime of 12.33am while the pre-1970s has an average bedtime of 11.02pm.

Pre- and post-1970s retired people often suffer from nocturnal awakening, early awakening and nocturnal urination while the post-00s and post-90s generations have trouble falling asleep.

In terms of university students, 56% use their smartphones for more than 8 hours every day. Fifty-one per cent go to bed after midnight and 19% go to bed after 2am.

The sleep duration of office workers on non-working days is 33 minutes longer than that of working days.

In addition, the sleep duration of people who drink is 27 minutes shorter than that of non-drinkers. As the frequency of alcohol consumption increases, the sleep quality declines. — China Daily/ANN