American culture affects our sleep

In response to the article, “There’s a ‘catastrophic sleep-loss epidemic,’ and it’s cutting lives short, expert says,” I must agree that American culture plays a huge role when equating more hours of sleep as a contributing factor to laziness among individuals. This is strictly due to the fact that American society sees the concept of time as a valuable tool that can be used to our advantage, rather than just a way of telling when it’s time to herd the cattle back in for the day (as is the case in many countries).

In an article posted on ExactlyWhatIsTime.com, social psychologist Robert Levine examined what time meant across cultures. He said the people who moved at the fastest pace and lived their daily lives at a high tempo were found in the “wealthier North American, northern European and industrialized Asian nations like Japan.” The slowest were non-industrialized and third-world countries, “particularly those in South and Central America and the Middle East.”

As a college student, I had the pleasure of interning abroad this past summer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and I can tell you with certainty that Argentinian society gets more hours of sleep than the American society does. And for what reason? Lack of nationally distributed technological advances, and therefore less distractions. For the overall benefit to the health of the American society, I believe it’s time we take the iPads and iPhones away from our kids. Tiktok.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 11:14 PM with the headline "American culture affects our sleep."