The amount and the quality of our sleep also depend on our culture - Simply Healthy Sleep - The online-magazine for your perfect sleep experience

Social differences influence our sleeping behavior. Scientists were able to make this determination with an App. Due to social differences, people of different nations have different sleep durations. According to the study, Japanese people have the fewest amount of sleep, only seven hours and 24 minutes, on an average.

The rhythm of our inner clock is determined by genes and is influenced by outer factors like sunlight. The inner clock itself influences our sleeping times and determines our time to go to bed resp. to get up. Our inner clock is disturbed by jet lags, shift work, artificial light or nutrition. Our modern way of living, office hours and social duties determine our sleeping times. Now, scientists around Olivia Walch of the University of Michigan have examined the influence of society on our sleep.

The research team collected data concerning sleeping habits of thousands of people from more than 100 nations with help of the free App “Entrain”. This App supports travelers in getting used to the new time zone. The users had to state several information like domestic time zone, light conditions they are living in during daytime as well as their sleeping times. Many App-Users provided the scientists these information anonymously. By using these data, the scientists intended to determine how factors like gender, age, light or social influences have an influence on our sleep duration.

Time to go to bed is determined by the surrounding and social norms

On the basis of the assessment they noticed that especially the time to go to bed is regulated by the surrounding and the social norms. The waking up time was connected with the inner clock of every single person and, of course, with duties like job, children and school. So, a later time to go to bed led to less sleep.

Women sleep longer

Furthermore the study revealed that, on an average, middle-age-men slept less than the recommended seven to eight hours. In comparison, women went to bed earlier and got up later. Especially women in the age of 30 to 60 years sleep about 30 minutes longer than men. According to Walch these gender differences decrease when getting older. She assumes that from the age of about 55 years on the time frame in which people are able to fall asleep and to sleep through shortens. The time spent in the open air during daytime, meaning, how much sunlight people were able to “consume”, had a significant influence on the sleeping time. People, who spent more time in the open air went to bed earlier and thereby slept longer than people who spent most time indoors.

Dutch people sleep longest

It seems that social circumstances also have an influence on the sleep duration. The scientists noted that the sleeping pattern of geographically and culturally related countries are alike.

Top of the ranking of different industrialized countries are Dutch people with eight hours and 12 minutes. The Germans sleep about seven hours and 45 minutes. Japanese people have to get along with the fewest amount of sleep, only seven hours and 24 minutes per night.

The differences seem to be small, but, according to the scientists every half hour additional sleep would make a significant difference in the cognitive performance and long-term health.

Inner clock is disregarded

According to Walch some people regularly go to bed late, later than their inner clock is assuming to. Due to social demands they often ignore the biologic signals. She furthermore emphasizes that the study is not giving any information about how much sleep every single person needs. It simply shows an average value.