2023-11-11 08:00:00
Samsung answers the classic question with the Global Sleep Quality Study.
Photo: Samsung.
San Salvador. Nowadays, more and more people prioritize sleep in their relationship with health. The growing interest in sleep is evident in recent trends seen with the Samsung Health app.
Over the past two years, there has been a 182% increase in the number of users who actively tracked sleep at least once a week for a year.
But despite this, the question remains: have we slept well? Samsung set out to answer this question by conducting one of the largest sleep quality studies ever conducted – analyzing 716 million nights of sleep from Samsung Health users around the world.
Although interest in personal sleep quality has skyrocketed, the unfortunate reality is that the quality of nighttime sleep is, in fact, declining. The world is facing a dilemma regarding sleep.
Across the planet, average sleep duration has decreased from 7 hours and 3 minutes to 6 hours and 59 minutes, below the essential threshold of 7 hours recommended by the National Sleep Foundation.
Another worrying aspect is the increased time spent awake during sleep, which causes a decrease in sleep efficiency, a key factor in sleep quality that is controlled by calculating the ratio between actual time asleep and total time spent awake. he spends it in bed every night.
This pattern was not isolated to any specific demographic group or region. Sleep duration and efficiency decreased in all sexes, age groups and regions studied:
Although sleep efficiency continues to trend downward for men, women experienced the most notable declines over the past year. Older demographic groups showed a greater decline in sleep efficiency. In particular, those over 70 years of age experienced a decrease almost twice as large as that observed in those in their twenties.
North America saw the largest decline in sleep efficiency, while Asia maintained the lowest. Outside of Europe and North America, sleep duration was less than seven hours in all other regions.
The lack of coherence in sleep patterns also significantly affects the quality of our rest. An example of this is sleep deficit, a measure that assesses inconsistency in sleep hours between the week and weekends, and which also contributes adversely to various sleep-related disorders.
Sleep deficit is greater among young people: twenty-somethings have almost twice the sleep deficit than septuagenarians: 49 minutes versus 29 minutes, respectively. By region, Asia has the lowest sleep deficit, at 41 minutes, while Latin America has the highest, at 47 minutes. Globally, people sleep an average of 44 minutes more on weekends.
With the aim of delving deeper into the predominant sleep patterns globally, Samsung undertook a study to analyze and categorize different types of sleepers, which it called “Sleep Animals.”
Each of these eight “Sleep Animals” represents a unique rest pattern, with specific characteristics that include sleep duration, regularity of schedules and wake time, all of which together influence sleep quality.
Interestingly, the majority of individuals around the world identified most closely with the sleep styles of the “Nervous Penguins,” who comprised a third of participants. They maintain healthy circadian rhythms, but experience frequent interruptions during sleep, which contributes to lower sleep efficiency. This pattern coincides with the downward trend observed over the last year.
Older users reported higher percentages of “Cautious Deer,” that is, a person with shorter sleep duration and higher wake times. Almost 40% of people over 70 years old had the “Cautious Deer” as their dream animal, which is almost 10 times more than people over 20 years old.
The proportion of this animal showed a constant increase as the age group aged. People in their 20s, in addition to having a higher representation of “Sensitive Hedgehogs,” also saw more “Sun Reluctant Moles” compared to older age groups. These categories, those who have problems with sleep consistency, became increasingly prevalent as the age demographic also decreased.
In addition to the “Sleep Animals”, a series of “Sleep Training” programs have also been developed with the purpose of enhancing the quality of rest. These programs are based on the strong belief that small adjustments to daily habits can have a positive impact on sleep quality.
Through a month of personalized and motivational training, adapted to the sleep typology of each individual and accessible directly from your wrist, practices such as getting up early, maintaining a constant wake-up time, maintaining activity during the day and other habits are promoted. beneficial.
Improving sleep quality is possible with small habits. With the Galaxy Watch6 series and Samsung Health, users can achieve healthier sleep with a better understanding of their own sleep patterns and motivations and personalized workouts.
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