Ready, set, snooze: Sleep-deprived Japanese compete for best-rested
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The Tokyo competition saw dozens of participants fitted with sleep tracking devices sprawl on comfy mattresses to slumber for up to 90 minutes.
PHOTO: AFP
- A Tokyo mattress company held the "Matt Race" where participants competed to fall asleep fastest and sleep most deeply, highlighting Japan's sleep deprivation issues.
- Japanese people sleep the least among OECD countries, averaging 7 hours 24 minutes daily due to long work hours and busy lifestyles.
- The winner, Suimii, plans to use the prize money to move out and buy a luxurious bed, showing personal benefits from the contest.
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TOKYO – In diligent, exhausted Japan, self-described elite “competitive sleepers” vied to lie down, relax and nap the fastest and deepest in a contest organised by a mattress company.
The Tokyo competition, dubbed “Matt Race”, saw dozens of participants fitted with sleep tracking devices sprawl on comfy mattresses to slumber for up to 90 minutes on Oct 5, competing for the top prize of over two million yen (S$17,900).
“Japan is often described as a country suffering from sleep deprivation, and people here are very diligent,” said Riichiro Nakama, creative director at organiser Koala Sleep Japan, the mattress company.
Inside a dimly lit room, participants slept with monitors attached to their heads, some cradling stuffed toys in their beds.
“By turning it into an event like this, I think we can get people to sleep together, raise interest in sleep,” Nakama said.
OECD data showed in 2021 that Japanese people slept an average 7hr 24min a day – the least of all OECD nations within the group – with experts citing long working and commuting hours and a busy nightlife economy as among contributing factors.
“It was over in an instant. I almost wish I could have slept a little longer,” participant Chisato Honda, 32, told AFP.
“It was a happy competition,” he added.
The winner was chosen based on how quickly and soundly they slept.
“I want to live on my own, so I think I’ll use the money for the moving costs,” said Suimii, the contest winner who gave only her nickname.
“I also want a bed like a princess’, so I think I’ll buy that bed.” AFP