The other day I wrote about my commute.
I can sit on the first train in the morning and the train departing from Shinagawa Station on the way home, so I don't have to stand all the time like before.
One of the things that surprises tourists who come to Japan from overseas is the number of people sleeping on the train. This is especially noticeable during commuting hours, and I would say that almost 90% of the people on the trains I use seem to be asleep.
I also tend to sleep on the train to and from work.
I fall asleep around 9:30 p.m. and wake up at 4 a.m., so my sleep time is short.
I think one of the reasons is that the shaking of the train induces sleep.
Trains are very quiet, especially in the morning. If possible, I would like to refrain from commuting in the morning, as people talking can interfere with my sleep.
Many people can sleep on trains, partly because of the security, but also because they don't get much sleep.
According to a 2019 survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development OECD, Japanese people are the lowest sleepers among 33 countries.
The longest sleep time is 9 hours in China. Followed by the United States at eight hours and 46 minutes. Japan has 7 hours and 22 minutes. The difference between China and Japan is 1 hour and 48 minutes.
In my case, I sleep for about 6 hours at night. If I add 80 minutes of sleep during my commute, I get about 7 hours and 20 minutes, which is the same as the average Japanese sleep time according to the OECD survey.
My commuting time has become my precious sleep time. I'm sure the people who sleep on the train are making up for the lack of sleep, just like me.
I did a little research on the internet to find out what the sleeping hours are like in my wife's country, the Philippines, and got some surprising results.
It is even shorter than the Japanese, 6 hours 30 minutes to 6 hours 45 minutes.
This is the result of a study using an app called "sleep cycle".
I was really surprised because I had the impression that they sleep for a longer time in the Philippines, a tropical country.
This is the result of a survey conducted by an app, so it may be that our sleep time is shortened because we look at Facebook and social networking sites.
