300 Million Chinese People Suffer from..
9 Minutes Read
• Over 80 percent of those interviewed said that they are losing sleep, and the majority of people have purchased products that claim to enhance sleep.
• The Chinese market for sleep products is also expanding. The Melatonin sales is through the roof, or traditional sleep products such as eye masks, soundproof earplugs, and pillows, technology products such as sleep aid sprays and aroma lamps have also emerged.
(Photo/21jingji.com)
Cant Sleep? You are not alone.
According to media reports, affected by the epidemic in 2020, although people stay at home longer, they fall asleep later and their sleep quality is not good. While sleep disorders are also showing a younger trend, at the same time, sleep aid products are getting more and more attention.
Back in 2016, 38 percent of adults in China were troubled by insomnia, and more than 300 million Chinese people suffered from a sleep disorder. What’s worse, that number is rising every year, according to a report recently released by China Sleep Research Society. The white book publication, that covers over 13,000 effective sample records across China, shows that people who have a higher income tend to sleep less and this is possibly due to work-related stress. For example, the publication found that people with monthly incomes of 3,000 yuan (461 US dollars) sleep, on average, less than 8 hours a day whilst those with monthly incomes between 25,001 and 30,000 yuan sleep an average of 7.73 hours a day!
Sleep disorders can occur at any age, but in general, it seems that young people are more prone to them than seniors. 84 percent of the surveyed post-90s generation said they had trouble sleeping, according to the social report. An analysis of big data collected from 450 million people revealed that more than 36 percent of the Chinese population suffered from frequent insomnia - three times or more in a week - in 2019 and 36.7 percent of them were people born after 1990. The data was collected from active users of Xiaomi services and products including sports bracelets that can monitor users' sleep status.
Symptoms and causes
"The main symptoms include difficulty in falling asleep (a sleep latency of more than half an hour), sleep maintenance disorder (awakening more than two times at night), early awakening, decreased sleep quality and total sleep time (usually less than 6.5 hours), accompanied by daytime dysfunction," said Liu Hao, secretary-general of Jiangxi sleep medical association. "Daytime dysfunction mainly refers to fatigue, depression or irritation, physical discomfort, cognitive impairment, among others."
"Apart from mounting work pressure, bad sleep habits and overuse of electronic devices are the main causes that deprive people of their sleep," said Kong Xiang, founder of E-Sleep, a company that provides professional solutions to treat sleep disorders.
The Young Generation Is Suffering From Depression And Anxiety
The incidence of mental illnesses has contributed to the increase in the overall lack of sleep. The study found that, in general, people with chronic sleep deprivation are at risk of depression, anxiety, suicide, and many other mental health issues, a figure which is 1.4 times higher than that of people who do not suffer any mental health issues.
Some young people said that the pressure of day-to-day life and work constantly affects their sleep quality. They go to bed later at night and wake up early in the morning, and even wake up several times in the middle of the night, feeling that they have “lost” a lot of sleep and therefore feeling "sluggish" throughout the day.
Sleeping Products: A Booming Market in China
An analysis found about 67.4 percent of people had purchased products that claim to enhance sleep, of whom 62 percent were born after 1990. Behind the growing demand for such products was an increase in the amount of people who can hardly sleep well. Many young people are also paying their money to buy melatonin, in order to be able to sleep more peacefully, some people even decide buy expensive speakers and headphones to help sleep, which may cost tens of thousands of dollars a year.
The Chinese market for sleep products is also expanding. In addition to traditional sleep products such as eye masks, soundproof earplugs, and pillows, technology products such as sleep aid sprays and aroma lamps have also emerged.
(Sleep aid products: a booming market in China. Statista 2020)
It is expected that Chinese marketing for sleeping products will exceed it will exceed one trillion yuan in 2030. According to a manufacturer, although the epidemic has affected the majority of industries this year, the market for sleeping products is growing massively, with a 20% increase in overall sales during the 2020 period!
According to data from Tmall Pharmaceutical, the sales of melatonin from January to September 2020 has increased by 57% year-on-year, and some household products that help sleep also increased by about 30%.
What Are The Experts Saying?
In this regard, experts said that the overall trend of sleep disorders is now becoming prominent among younger people. The extremely irregular sleep of these young people is a major cause of sleep disorders across China. Aside from work pressure, it's thought that the cause could be the amount of time young people spend on digital devices in bed, resulting in their brain being active and therefore not being able to sleep as easily.
Huang Zhili, director of the Chinese Sleep Research Association, said that if you have sleep problems, you need to go to a hospital in order to seek help from a doctor before purchasing any sleep-aid products. Unreasonable health products will also delay treatment and it has been found that many sleeping products have their own applicability and should be selected with the help of professionals that can diagnose and help to improve your general sleeping pattern.
Source: Global Times, Xinhua, Statista 2020.
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