Sleep and Rest in Japan and the World

This week’s topic made me reflect on how sleep and rest are influenced by culture. I realized that sleep is not only about health, but also about daily routines and social expectations.

In Japan, it is common to see people sleeping in public places like trains or even at work. This is connected to long work and study hours. As a matter of fact people see tiredness as something to praise, giving the idea of someone who worked really hard. Research shows that people in Japan tend to sleep less than people in many other countries. For example, a study found that Japanese adults often sleep less than 7 hours per night on average (Seol et al., 2025). In addition, other research explains that long working hours and social pressure are important factors that reduce sleep time in Japan (Kajitani, 2021). However, it is well known that people in Japan work really hard from a really young age,, which leads to fewer hours of sleep. From a health perspective for foreigns, this may not create a good impression.

In Costa Rican culture, sleeping in public or in class is usually seen as disrespectful or lazy, as you must always be able to give your 100%, which is clearly very different than a Japanese perspective. This shows how the same behavior can have different meanings depending on culture.

A similarity is that in both cultures, people understand that sleep is important for health and energy. However, many people still do not get enough sleep because of work, study, or distractions.

Overall, this topic helped me understand that even something as basic as sleep is shaped by culture, and it made me reflect on my own habits.




References:

Kajitani, S. (2021). The return of sleep. ScienceDirect.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1570677X21000101

Seol, J., et al. (2025). Association of sleep patterns assessed by smartphone. Nature Digital Medicine.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41746-025-02155-3


Comentarios

  1. 2026 Elvina's Blog27 de abril de 2026 a las 11:15 p.m.

    Thank you for sharing this! It's interesting to see the differences between Costa Rican and Japanese culture towards sleep.

    ResponderBorrar
  2. Annika27 de abril de 2026 a las 11:16 p.m.

    I really enjoyed reading your blog. The comparison between sleeping/napping habits in Japan and your culture is very interesting!

    ResponderBorrar
  3. Eleen27 de abril de 2026 a las 11:19 p.m.

    In my country, people do not really fall asleep in class or at least in my classes, but similar like Costa Rica, teachers do not like it when we fall asleep in class

    ResponderBorrar

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