Sleep Much?

The French sleep more than any other industrialized nation in the world according to the Wall Street Journal. No wonder I often feel like a French woman! The article noted that the average minutes of sleep per night among French citizens is 530 minutes compared to 518 for Americans and only 469 for Koreans who are considered to be the “most awake” according to a study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development.

The OECD also studied the amount of time spent eating by each industrialized nation. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to you that the French win in this category as well spending nearly 2.25 hours eating daily! Baguette anyone? They are closely followed by the Kiwi’s who enjoy munching for 2.20 hours per day. The United States ranked third to last with only 1 hour, 14 minutes devoted to meals daily. Fast food anyone?

It isn’t hard to believe that the French exceed nearly every other nation in the amount of time spent eating and sleeping because they also lead in the amount of time off from work, receiving 30 annual days of mandatory paid leave = get out of the office and live life! Next to follow is the UK with 20 annual days of paid leave.

Stats taken from The Wall Street Journal, by David Gauthier-Villars [May 5, 2009]