IF YOU are reading this bleary-eyed at midnight, squinting at your phone while telling yourself you will sleep soon, you are not alone.
Malaysians have a complicated relationship with sleep – and by complicated, we mean we simply do not get enough of it.
With mamak stalls buzzing past midnight, group chats that never go quiet and bosses who have apparently never heard of the phrase "after working hours", the odds are stacked against a good night's rest. But is it really that bad?
Could Malaysians truly be among the most sleep-deprived people in Asia?
Verdict:
FALSE
Malaysia is not South-East Asia's sleep deprivation champion – it is more of a very enthusiastic runner-up.
A 2023 survey by consumer research firm Milieu Insight, covering 3,000 respondents across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines, found that 46% of South-East Asians experienced sleep problems at least a few times a week.
The Philippines led the regional misery parade at 56%, followed by Thailand at 49% and Indonesia at 44%.
Vietnam came in at 43%, while Singapore and Malaysia tied at 42% – which is either reassuring or deeply concerning, depending on how much sleep you got last night.
The same study found that Vietnam and the Philippines had the largest shares of respondents reporting sleep problems, at 79% and 80%, respectively.
So yes, Malaysia lost the race to the bottom – congratulations, sort of.
The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2023 found that 38% of Malaysian adults were not getting enough sleep, defined as fewer than seven hours in any 24-hour period, with urban dwellers faring worse at 39% compared with their more rested rural counterparts at 32%.
A peer-reviewed study published in Nature and Science of Sleep, based on a cross-sectional survey of 11,356 working Malaysian adults, found that the mean daily sleep time was 6.49 hours and that more than half, specifically 54.7%, were sleeping less than the recommended seven hours a night.
University students were no better, with a study published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health finding that 58.1% of Malaysian undergraduates were sleep-deprived.
Apparently, pulling all-nighters has become less of an emergency measure and more of a lifestyle choice.
Healthcare workers fared worst of all, with a study published in PLOS One finding that more than three-quarters of medical officers surveyed at a tertiary hospital in Malaysia were sleep-deprived.
Researchers pointed to late-night screen use, long commutes, work culture and the particular Malaysian affliction of group chats that simply refuse to go quiet after 10pm as key drivers of the problem.
For those who need a global perspective to feel better about things, consider this: South Korea and Japan consistently rank among the world's worst countries for sleep, with Sleep Cycle data showing both nations average just under 6.5 and 6.25 hours per night, respectively.
A Philips global sleep survey found that Singapore and Japan averaged just six hours of sleep per night during the working week – which goes some way towards explaining why vending machines that sell pyjamas exist in Tokyo.
The health consequences of all this lost sleep are, predictably, not great.
An umbrella review of 29 systematic reviews and meta-analyses published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine found that chronic sleep deprivation was a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
In other words, staying up late to scroll through cat videos is quietly doing more harm than most Malaysians would care to admit.
Experts recommend a consistent sleep schedule, reducing screen time at least an hour before bed and creating a cool, dark and quiet sleep environment – all of which sound perfectly reasonable and will almost certainly be ignored.
So while Malaysia is technically not South-East Asia's most sleep-deprived nation, it is very much in the conversation. The mamak stalls will stay open, the group chats will keep buzzing and the boss will keep sending voice notes at midnight. But perhaps, just this once, putting the phone down a little earlier might be worth a try.
The Philippines can keep the crown for now. Malaysia can have it back after a nap.
References:
1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.
3. https://journals.plos.org/
4. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
5. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.
8. https://www.thestar.com.my/
9. https://bernama.com/en/news.
10. https://bernama.com/en/news.
