Monday, 04 May 2009
-
Which Countries Sleep The Most And Eat The Longest?
According to Reuters, a study was published today in which 18 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) were surveyed to see just which countries slept the most and ate the longest. You may be surprised at which countries came out on top. Here are the top three in the sleeping category:
1. France (almost nine hours every night)
2. USA (more than 8.5 hours a night)
3. SpainJapan and Korea were the bottom two on the list. The article posted limited statistical data and I was unable to find a full listing. Keep in mind that the sample size is small and this is more for entertainment purposes. Here's the top three countries that spend the most time eating.
1. France (more than two hours a day eating)
2. New Zealand
3. Japan (almost two hours a day)
I was a bit surprised myself to see the United States rank so high in sleeping. When traveling, I find that other countries viewed the US as working too hard and I kind of agreed with that opinion. Compared to say Australians who sometimes take months off at a time to travel, it's sometimes easy to think that Americans do spend less time on leisure. Now that I have lived in New York for awhile, this has only strengthened this belief. I sometimes see people putting in long hours in the office (sometimes up to 14-16 hours a day!).Were you surprised by this list? Do you agree that the French sleep the most and eat the longest?
Post a Comment
- Back to tripcrazed's Tripcrazed Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in tripcrazed's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
















Comments (81)
The US sleeping is surprising to me. I always thought the same, that they didn't get enough sleep.
Well I know I personally don't get that amount of sleep, but American's are lazy =P
And those countries take the longest time eating because they actually probably take time to enjoy our food, while I know that I at least just inhale my meals without taking time to "savor" it or whatever.yes, i'm definitely surprised. wow... 8.5 hours a night? that would be awesome if i got that! haha
Those lazy french bastards!
lol
The US sleeping didn't surprise me at all.
And the eating one didn't surprise me either. We here in the US spend so little time eating, with out fast food and to-go foods we're always on the run.
i always imagined the antarcticans... in igloos, bad reception, dozing to the intense cold. some koreans want more sleep...
i'm going to France; i bet their schools make sure their students get more sleep instead of making them stay up for all-nighters. lol I'd love to get more sleep.Â
No surprises there.
I am surprised. I've heard stuff about how Americans don't get enough sleep, and this proves that we get more than most countries. Ha. I'm also shocked that someone can spend over two hours eating.. a day. Maybe I eat too fast.
yea and that was one reason why france has a low rate of heart disease. i am made for france! - i Need to sleep 9hours a day and i eat almost all the time..
Not surprised. I thought it was Italy that spent the most time eating. [shrug]
I agree that the U.S. works too much. I remember a professor telling me that peoples in Italy (I think it was) would have frequent breaks during work, and would close up shop in the afternoon to go home for lunch. Sounds like a much more relaxed atmosphere.
Yeah, I'm surprised that the US ranked near the top in sleeping! We're all about fast and efficient in the US; that's why I wasn't surprised by the fact we didn't make the top 3 in eating times ...
Immediately I saw the post, France came to mind. There is such a chilled atmosphere there and because they have Sunday's free('cause its a 'Catholic' country) I guess they have a lot of time to sleep.I was surprised that Spain and Italy were not under the list of those that eat the longest.
Wow. I'm surprised the US doesn't even break the top three on eating.
I was surprised, because I've always heard that the average American gets about 5 hours of sleep per night.
US can spend more time sleeping because they spend less time eating.
This is only more fodder for anti-French sentiment in America, LOL.
I don't think that statistic for U.S. sleep is accurate.
I don't know about the sleeping habits of the French, but I have heard that they take longer to eat. It's one of the reasons why they don't get fat... even though they eat butter and cheese and bread. Relaxing and savouring your meal is probably better for your digestion.
The list is surprising for sure....according to the figures French seem to be more than accustomed to a most comfortable way of leading life....
wow really? I'm lucky if I even get 6 hours of sleep a night
i wish i could get 8.5 hours of sleep
8.5 hrs a night... that's pretty much what I get in a week... I know very very few people who get 8 hrs of sleep a night. i'd say maybe 6 is more accurate..
I definitely think the french eat the longest, thats for sure. When I visited we wouldn't see a waitress for half an hour at a time. You could spend 3 hours just at dinner.
I'm not surprised about japan's 2hr sleeping average because they are too busy conjuring up weird and cool inventions like every single day
I think the U.S. numbers were mainly asked to couch potatoes, who own a tivo, probably not the white collar corporate office workers.
Don't agree. Yeah, austrailians take months off at a time, but they spend it cooking up mad amounts of kangaroo and drinking stong beer. aborigines too. i met this dude on a cruise who was an aborigine and all he did was drink fosters.
that mexican sleeping is really racist though.
Man, the French have it awesome- free health care, longest time to eat, longest sleeping hours. I'm in Canada and we have it pretty good too, but I've gotta say, I'm jealous!
And my grade 7 teacher taught in Japan and they go to school for so much time during the day (he said 11 hours!), no wonder they barely sleep.