Sleep in Different Cultures

It is apparent that there are significant differences in sleep patterns in different parts of the world, and that sleep patterns have also changed over time. Traditions, cultural values, local conditions and environments all influence sleep patterns.

One major source of these differences is the widespread use of artificial(人造的) light, which has led to changes in the sleep patterns in the industrialized world. It is thought that today we sleep several hours less than before industrialization. Artificial light has encouraged people to go to bed later and to sleep the whole night through (Monophasic Sleep), rather than the more broken up and flexible sleep patterns (Biphasic Sleep). During the long nights of the winter months, our ancestors used to break sleep up into two or more parts, separated by an hour or two of quiet restfulness.

Even within the developed world, there are still significant differences in sleep patterns. A study carried out in ten countries in 2002 showed some of these regional variations. For instance, the results of sleeping time at night from individual countries varied from 6 hours 53 minutes in Japan to 8 hours 24 minutes in Portugal. Over 42% of Brazilians took regular afternoon naps (short sleeps), compared to only 12% of Japanese people.

A daytime nap is a common habit among adults in many countries. Spain, in particular, has raised the nap almost to the level of an art form. The experience of Japan is a clear example of the way a culture change can affect sleep patterns. In the 1950s, Japan was keen to rebuild. Japanese workers were encouraged to wake early and finish late as well. The work-place nap was encouraged as a way for a worker to increase productivity, even though in fact it probably degraded the quality of night-time sleep even more. Today, sleep is perhaps more undervalued in Japan than anywhere else.

It is clear, then, that there are cultural and historical differences in our sleep patterns. Yet the one thing that stays the same across all cultures is the one truth about sleeping: We all do it!

Facing the growing digital economy and new positions incubated (孵化) in the sector such as deliverymen and live-streaming hosts, young people, especially those born after 2000, are expressing a stronger willingness for flexible work relations with companies, and also wish to become “digital workers” with flexible work locations and schedules.

A report from Peking University’s National School of Development released on Wednesday said that nearly 66 percent of surveyed employees born after 2000 prefer to work from home. The number is higher than surveyed people born after 1970, with about 54. 4 percent of them preferring the new way.

“The Internet can do anything for me. I check emails from my clients and submit my proposals through WeChat, then we discuss plans via teleconference. I love working from home actually,” said Mi Lu, a 28-year-old new media operator in Beijing. “It’s a much more convenient and cooler thing. We work everywhere, perhaps in a cafe, or on a bullet train or even on the table of a restaurant.”

Hu Jiayin, an associate professor in Peking University’s National School of Development, concluded that their survey shows that young people desire freedom in their jobs, but also wish for stability in their careers because of uncertainties brought by the fast-changing digital economy.

“But the development of the digital economy also brings great uncertainties and a sense of insecurity to the working population, so we’ve found some interesting things during our surveys that over 30 percent of job seekers we’ve surveyed wish to have a stable job at state-owned companies,” she added.

Li Qiang, vice-president of Zhaopin, said that the greatest risk to those seeking flexible work is whether the company pays the salary fully and on time. “It’s necessary for job seekers to set up a long-term development plan, rather than be shortsighted.” He added that companies may bear risks that flexible employees can’t deliver high-quality work in a limited time period, which requires the companies to establish a sound work delivery standard to help evaluate employee performance.

Habits are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on auto-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. “Not choice, but habit rules the unreflecting creatures,” William Wordsworth said in the 19th century. In the everchanging 21st century, even the word “habit” carries a negative meaning.

So it seems contradictory to talk about habits in the same context as innovation (创新). But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously develop new habits, we create parallel paths, and even entirely new brain cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.

Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can instead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the more new things we try, the more creative we become.

But don’t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are worn into the brain, they’re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we deliberately press into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old roads.

“The first thing needed for innovation is attraction to wonder, ”says Dawna Markova, author of The Open Mind. “But we are taught instead to ‘decide’, just as our president calls himself ‘the Decider’.” She adds, however, that “to decide is to kill off all possibilities but one. A good innovational   thinker is always exploring the many other possibilities.”

“All of us work through problems in ways of which we’re unaware, ”she says. Researchers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the ability to approach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, collaboratively (合作地) and innovatively. At the end of adolescence, however, the brain shuts down half of that ability, preserving only those ways of thought that have seemed most valuable during the first decade or so of life.

The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure, meaning that few of us use our innovative and collaborative ways of thought. “This breaks the major rule in the American belief system-that anyone can do anything, ” explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book This Year I Will... and Ms. Markova’s business partner. “That’s a lie that we have preserved, and it fosters commonness. Knowing what you’re good at and doing even more of it creates excellence.” This is where developing new habits comes in.