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A person is seen walking in the streets of Akita in this file photo. (Mainichi/Kaho Shimokobe)

AKITA -- Getting a good night's sleep is essential to leading a healthy life, and in Japan it's the people of the northern prefecture of Akita who are getting the most pillow time, and the only people in the entire country to manage over eight hours in bed per day on average. The Mainichi Shimbun sat down with a sleep expert to find out their secrets.

According to the results of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry Statistics Bureau's 2016 "social and lifestyle basic research," average sleep time in Japan stood at seven hours and 40 minutes, while that of Akita Prefecture residents was eight hours and two minutes. Compared to those living in Saitama Prefecture, north of Tokyo, who got the least sleep at an average of seven hours and 31 minutes, Akitans snoozed at least half an hour longer.

Former Japanese Society of Sleep Research chairman and current Akita Prefectural Mental Health and Welfare Center director Tetsuo Shimizu explains that the possible main cause of longer sleep hours is that senior citizens make up a large part of Akita Prefecture's population. The Cabinet Office's 2019 Annual Report on the Aging Society says 36.4% of the prefecture's population was aged 65 and up in 2018, making it the only prefecture with a percentage higher than 35. Shimizu says one can argue that the more retired people there are, the more people there are with the time to have a proper sleep.

Shimizu also noted other rankings that appear in the Statistics Bureau's research, such as that for commuting times. Akita Prefecture placed 43rd, tied with three other prefectures including Aomori, for the second shortest time. The prefectures with the three longest commuting times -- Kanagawa, Chiba and Saitama, all bordering Tokyo -- are also the prefectures with the shortest sleep hours.

"Akita Prefecture is so far away from a major metropolitan area and it is also a major farming prefecture. Many residents probably spend only limited time on commuting," says Shimizu.

Furthermore, Shimizu points to the average bedtime of the Akitans as a factor contributing to their country-topping shuteye stats. According to one of the charts in the lifestyle research, Akita Prefecture residents go to bed at 10:33 p.m. on average, earliest in the country. The early bedtime is evidence that there are many older residents with moved-up sleep-wake cycles, and Shimizu comments, "We don't have many daylight hours in winter here and it gets freezing cold, so people would be more likely to say, 'Let's not waste money for kerosene and get in bed already.'"

Longer sleeping hours would seem to promise health benefits for Akitans. But according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry's 2015 longevity list broken down by prefecture, Akita is second-last for men, at 79.51 years, and fourth from the bottom for women at 86.38 years.

Shimizu comments, "Akitans like drinking, so I suspect there are many of them who drink a lot before going to bed and just pass out. That might be negatively affecting the benefits of sleep." Backing Shimizu's claim, Statistics Bureau research on household spending in prefectural capitals and government-designated major cities showed that people in the city of Akita spent the most money on alcohol per year, averaging 55,920 yen (about $510) in 2017 through 2019, highlighting Akitans' love of drinking.

(Japanese original by Hiroshi Takano, Akita Bureau)

More:
Not so sleepless in Akita: The secrets of the Japanese prefecture getting the most Zs - The - The Mainichi

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