On March 18 a report by Chinese Medical Doctor Association and Horizon-China.com a consultant company indicates that Chinese people sleep an average of eight hours and 50 minutes every day, but nearly half feel sluggish when awake.

 

　　The report on Chinese people's sleep habits was based on a survey conducted in November and December through random household visits in 20 cities, 20 towns and 20 villages.

 

　　The results show that some 55 percent of respondents admitted that work pressures have affected their sleep patterns and they have resorted to various methods to improve sleep quality.

 

　　Also, according to the survey results men sleep better than women, and people in rural regions have better sleep quality than their urban counterparts.

 

　　Zhang Yuan with Horizon-China.com was one of the participants in the survey. She says there is much work to do to improve the quality of Chinese people's sleep.

 

　　"Among all the level A indicators in evaluating the quality of sleep, the general score of sleep management of surveyed people was only 58.4. This is a key factor which influences people's sleep quality. In our survey this time the score of the sleeping environment was 64.1, a bit higher level of sleep management."

 

　　Zhang detailed some elements that create low quality sleep.

 

　　"The first one is emotion. When people's emotion are affected by emergencies, sleep may be seriously affected. The sense of happiness is another important factor. More than 55 percent of the correspondents say that they face great pressure either from their work or their life.

 

　　Chronic disease may seriously affect people's sleep quality. We also found that new media, like the internet, chatting software and Weibo can seriously affect people's health. Many people spend too much time on them before they go to sleep."

 

　　The survey found that 67.1 percent of people chat on mobile phones or computers before sleeping, and 43.2 percent of those going to bed after midnight do so due to online gaming and messaging.

 

　　According to Qin Xiaoming, deputy head of the Chinese Medical Doctor Association, which sponsored the report, the survey revealed a trend that showed people in south and west China tend to sleep better than those in the north and east, and bachelors sleep better than married men.

 

　　Hong Shaoguang a cardiovascular disease doctor also a health care expert says that there are three factors in realizing quality sleep: adjusting your biological clock, proper labor work, plus listening to sleep supportive music.

 

　　"People should have a proper understanding of their life, because pressure from society is always there. You can't change society. What you can do is to change yourself. Generally speaking, a person's psychological status, like positive self esteem, is a key element of anyone's health. As long as we respect the rules of our life, can we adapt to it and have a proper pace of the biological clock."

 

　　Stressing moderate sleep durations, the report urged people to avoid overusing networking devices, while turning to relaxing music, massage and naps to improve sleep quality.

 

　　For CRI, I am Li Dong.