As it turns out, New York is far from "the city that never sleeps."
Jawbone, best known as the high-tech hand-free headset used by only the world’s coolest and most important cell phone talkers, also has a nifty device called UP, which can monitor both its wearers sleep and activity levels. Thanks to a study Jawbone conducted using data from UP wearers, they’ve given us a fascinating insight into not just human behavior, but culture around the world, as well. Some takeaways? New York doesn’t sleep much (but it’s undeserving of it’s “city that never sleeps” moniker), and almost no one sleeps enough.
In the US, New Yorkers average 6 hours and 47 minutes of sleep per day, and they start things on the later side – by 9 am, 30% of New Yorkers are still snoozing. They are, however, the most active city in the US, averaging 8,704 steps per day. Contrast New York with Washington, DC, and you see the military influence on the differences in culture: DC sleeps about the same amount of hours, but by 7:30 am, just a third of DC residents are still asleep. The smaller, more localized nature of the city also leads the Hill crowd to take fewer steps at 8,262.
World wide, Tokyo is hands-down the busiest city – they sleep, on average, just 5 hours and 46 minutes of sleep per night. They also happen to get there by being the last to go to bed at night and the first to wake in the morning. Dubai, though not the sleepiest city, has the most flexible sleep schedule with 10% of UP users still asleep at 11 am. The honor of best rested city in the study goes to Melbourne, Australia – their residents showed an average of 6 hours and 57 minutes of sleep per night.
Most health professionals recommend getting anywhere between seven and nine hours of sleep per night, and no city in the study averaged out to even the minimum of seven – signs, possibly, that as a species we’re over-extended. The cultural differences are also interesting – workers in Beijing, for instance, can be seen taking afternoon naps in the workplace, as can citizens of Madrid. All told, no city ever had anywhere close to 100% of its residents asleep at once (the maximum was 95% due to early risers and shift workers). In that regard, it seems that every city is truly the city that never sleeps.
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