sleepless in SINGAPORE

We are all guilty of skimping on sleep at the cost of our health. Assistant professor Jw7e LO of NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, and Dr Shaun Lob from SingHealth-Duke NUS’s Sleep Centre, spill the tea on why catching more Zzzs is crucial.

-  JASMINE ALIMIN

Snoozing seems almost scandalous in a city that literally never sleeps. We hustle, grind, and keep the lights on 24/7. But let’s face it, sleep is not a sign of weakness—it’s for the wise. Sleep is essential for health, productivity, and that elusive concept: Happiness. Yet, snatching those precious Zzzs can feel like an impossible task, an ongoing battle against societal pressures, and our own wired world.

Our love for efficiency and productivity has us collectively running on fumes. According to a 2024 sleep study by YouGov, less than half of Singaporeans surveyed gets the recommended seven hours of sleep. About one-fifth say they sleep five hours or less.

The problem starts young. Many children, weighed down by a packed academic and extra-curricular schedule, are routinely short on sleep. The onset of puberty causes a shift in the body’s circadian rhythms and production of the sleep hormone melatonin, which causes the progressive delay in sleep and wake times in adolescents. Teenagers’ sleep needs are further squeezed by the demands of school and the allure of glowing screens.

Adults, caught in the relentless current of work deadlines, family and social commitments, find themselves sacrificing sleep at the altar of productivity. Assistant Professor June Lo Chi Yan from the Centre for Sleep and Cognition at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine shares the statistics: “On school days, 64.5 per cent of school-age children in Singapore have less than the minimum recommended sleep duration of nine hours, and 85 per cent of adolescent students sleep less than the minimum age-appropriate duration of eight hours. Adults are recommended to sleep at least seven hours a night, but on weekdays, 60 to 75 per cent fail to do so.”