(ORDO NEWS) — As we age, our sleep patterns change dramatically, and how long it lasts depends on many factors, external and internal.
Now, however, British scientists, having collected data on 730,000 people from different countries, have learned when people sleep longer and when they sleep the least in their lives.
To draw global conclusions requires at least a global sample, and British scientists managed to collect data on the sleep patterns of 730,187 people from 63 countries in an unusual way: using the mobile game Sea Hero Quest.
The game itself was designed to study Alzheimer’s disease and assess differences in the spatial abilities of people from different parts of the world, but at the same time, players also answered other questions about themselves, including reporting age and daily sleep time.
It turned out that players sleep an average of 7.01 hours a day, while women sleep an average of 7.5 minutes longer than men.
Eastern European countries such as Albania, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic slept the most, half an hour longer than the global average, while Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia slept the least.
Despite the difference in different parts of the world, scientists have identified a general dynamics of sleep duration, which does not depend on either gender, place of residence, or level of education: the youngest participants in the experiment, under the age of 20, slept the longest, by the age of 30, sleep duration gradually decreased, stabilized from 30 to 50 years, and after 50 increased again.
The researchers suggest that this dynamic reflects the social roles of people for whom the period from 20 to 50 years is the time of the most active work and family life.
As for the game’s basic goal of finding differences in navigational ability, despite varying sleep durations, the researchers found no difference between younger participants and middle-aged players. But in people older than 54 years, these abilities declined sharply.
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