Vietnamese get less sleep than most of the world: survey

People in Vietnam sleep on average less than seven hours a day, and are among those who sleep the least across the world, according to a recent survey published by The Economist.

The Economist used data from the Sleep Cycle App, which records one million users’ sleeping time worldwide and has discovered that people around the world get on average seven hours and 12 minutes of shut-eye per night.

Sleeping for less than 8 hours a day seems to be a trend across Asian economies such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan, according to the report.

The Economist suggests that residents of rich countries tend to get more sleep and are well-rested. Prime examples are the U.S., Canada and Luxembourg, where people sleep for between seven hours 15 minutes to seven hours 30 minutes per night.

Countries that get the most sleep include New Zealand, Finland, Netherland, Australia and Ireland, who bed down for more than seven and a half hours every night.

In contrast, Japan is listed as the weariest of the 55 countries and territories in the report, but it has a greater GDP than most other Asian countries. Among the group that gets the least sleep are Korea and Saudi Arabia, where people sleep between six hours 15 minutes and six hours 30 minutes a night.

The U.S. National Sleep Foundation warns that sleeping for less than seven hours a night can reduce reasoning and reaction times, and increase the chance of an early death by 13 percent if done so consistently.

President Donald Trump only gets four hours of sleep a night and Apple CEO Tim Cook always get out of bed before 4 a.m., according to The Economist. Both say that not getting enough sleep does not affect their productivity.