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How to sleep and eat like the French
By Tony Barber
Published: May 6 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 6 2009 03:00
Brussels blog (Tony Barber): Let me tell you, you can learn a lot from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In its latest social indicators survey, Society at a Glance 2009, the Paris-based OECD discloses that French people spend longer asleep than any other nation that belongs to this elite club of the world's advanced economies. To be precise, an average French person sleeps for eight hours and 50 minutes every day, a good hour or so more than the average Korean or Japanese.
What is more, the French spend almost two and a half hours every day eating and drinking. By contrast, Americans, Canadians and Mexicans each wolf down their daily meals in less than 80 minutes all told.
Let's have a think about this. It would, in theory, be possible to take the outrageously cynical view that the French and other Europeans are a lazy, decadent lot who, when they're not unemployed or inventing morally threatening forms of art, are on strike or whiling away the day in restaurants and cafés. And now, it appears, almost the only other thing they do is sleep.
It would be equally possible to regard Asians as insanely hard-working (up before dawn and constructing a skyscraper by teatime) and Americans as having a seriously warped work ethic. (When Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune took a dictation test to become a US citizen, the second sentence he had to write down was: "I plan to work very hard every day.")
But these stereotypical views of societies aren't really grounded in fact, are they? For example, the OECD survey reveals that the nation that is second only to the French in hours spent asleep is none other than the United States. Meanwhile, the Japanese come third (behind New Zealand) in terms of time devoted to eating and drinking.
I'm not sure what the explanation is, but I do know one thing. By some distance, the countries with the highest suicide rates are South Korea and Hungary, according to the OECD report. Maybe the French and Americans are right to spend that extra time in bed - even if not with each other.
By Tony Barber
Published: May 6 2009 03:00 | Last updated: May 6 2009 03:00
Brussels blog (Tony Barber): Let me tell you, you can learn a lot from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In its latest social indicators survey, Society at a Glance 2009, the Paris-based OECD discloses that French people spend longer asleep than any other nation that belongs to this elite club of the world's advanced economies. To be precise, an average French person sleeps for eight hours and 50 minutes every day, a good hour or so more than the average Korean or Japanese.
What is more, the French spend almost two and a half hours every day eating and drinking. By contrast, Americans, Canadians and Mexicans each wolf down their daily meals in less than 80 minutes all told.
Let's have a think about this. It would, in theory, be possible to take the outrageously cynical view that the French and other Europeans are a lazy, decadent lot who, when they're not unemployed or inventing morally threatening forms of art, are on strike or whiling away the day in restaurants and cafés. And now, it appears, almost the only other thing they do is sleep.
It would be equally possible to regard Asians as insanely hard-working (up before dawn and constructing a skyscraper by teatime) and Americans as having a seriously warped work ethic. (When Roger Cohen of the International Herald Tribune took a dictation test to become a US citizen, the second sentence he had to write down was: "I plan to work very hard every day.")
But these stereotypical views of societies aren't really grounded in fact, are they? For example, the OECD survey reveals that the nation that is second only to the French in hours spent asleep is none other than the United States. Meanwhile, the Japanese come third (behind New Zealand) in terms of time devoted to eating and drinking.
I'm not sure what the explanation is, but I do know one thing. By some distance, the countries with the highest suicide rates are South Korea and Hungary, according to the OECD report. Maybe the French and Americans are right to spend that extra time in bed - even if not with each other.
Is this related to their penchant for being conquered? I think so.
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