Can't Sleep? Neither Can 300 Million Chinese Adults, Study Says

By Naomi Lounsbury, March 27, 2019

Last week, China News reported that 38 percent of Chinese adults have sleep disorders, exceeding the world average of 27 percent.

By our calculation, that’s approximately 300 million Chinese people who are affected by sleep disorders.

Dongbei News noted that the majority of these adults are under 30 years old. Sixty percent of people in China born in the ‘90s don’t get enough sleep while 60 percent of teenagers get less than eight hours of sleep.

There are several reasons provided for why adults in China suffer from sleep deprivation. People.cn notes that there is a direct correlation between an intense academic burden and sleep deprivation, so the award for largest panda eyes usually goes to students.

According to Dongbei News and the National Business Daily, work stress is another contributor to sleep deprivation, while mobile phones are one of the biggest factors for increased rates of sleeplessness. With over 817 million internet users in China, people are having a difficult time turning off their screens and catching some zzz’s.

Sleep disorders not only impact a person’s level of fatigue each day but they also affect mood, ability to focus and short term memory, according to Science Direct. More serious issues caused by sleep deprivation include depression, anxiety and cardiac failure, as well as the acceleration of Parkinson ’s and Alzheimer’s.

Watch below to understand the drawbacks of sleep deprivation (VPN off):

National Business Daily quoted Chief Physician Yu Xiaonian of China Medical University, saying “In recent years, the incidence of mental illness has continued to increase. Sleep deprivation is one of the reasons. Chronic sleep deprivation may be related to all mental illness, and in some cases the two are even causal. This means the lack of sleep causes mental disorders, then mental disorders in turn cause sleep deprivation and it’s just a vicious cycle, which can cause depression, anxiety and so on.”

So remember, get some sleep to avoid being the Eeyore of your friend group.

[Cover image via @womansfash/Instagram]