Relax - A good nap beats great sex, say travellers

Relax

News

Article

A good nap beats great sex, say travellers

By Sonia Ramachandran, New Straits Times | Mon, Aug 24 2009

Global sleep study shows that more than half of the Asian respondents felt that a great night's sleep trumped great sex.

A good nap beats great sex, say travellers

Keywords

westin

sleep

sex

KUALA LUMPUR - A good night's sleep is much better than great sex.

This was among the results of a global sleep study of more than 12,500 frequent travellers conducted by Westin Hotels.

The study was a follow-up to a sleep study the hotel chain conducted a decade ago.

The results showed that more than half of the Asian respondents (52 per cent) felt that a great night's sleep trumped great sex.

A great leap compared with just 31 per cent who chose sleep over sex 10 years ago

But preferring a sleeping pill to a chocolate?

That is exactly what the survey found with 53 per cent saying they'd rather have a sleeping pill on their hotel pillow than the ubiquitous chocolate, while 56 per cent took a relaxant, sleep or stress medication when travelling overnight.

One in every two respondents felt a good night's sleep was very important with more than half (58 per cent) believing that today's technology and constant connectivity impairs sleep.

They also believe that the Blackberry makes dreadful sleep companions and 60 per cent said PDAs prevented them from getting a shut eye.

The biggest worry that was keeping them up at night were things like bills or mortgage payments (21 per cent), problems with their spouse or partner (20 per cent) and work related stress (18 per cent).

For male travellers in Asia, the main sleep prevention culprit was problems with their spouse or partner (20 per cent) while for females it was bills and mortgage (28 per cent).

In Canada and China, the biggest worry was problems with the spouse.

More than half of those surveyed (55 per cent) found that a great hotel bed provides a better sleep experience than their beds at home and 50 per cent agreed that sleeping in a hotel bed while on a business trip was a "luxury". This represents a change from 10 years ago, when 82 per cent of travellers found something to complain about hotel beds.

The survey also found that the most important service people expect from a hotel is a good night's sleep (23 per cent), followed by a good restaurant and shower (16 per cent each).

A bad night's sleep has serious repercussions with more than half surveyed saying that a bad night's sleep hurt their business performance.

Most people surveyed said they had got into fights with their boss or co-workers because of a bad night's sleep (30 per cent), more than one in four screwed up a presentation (26 per cent), while 22 per cent argued with their spouse or partner or forgot important events.

Males were most likely to get into a fight with their boss or co-workers (31 per cent), while females were most likely to screw up a presentation (30 per cent).

Twelve countries were surveyed. They were Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, the United States and the United Arab Emirates.

The month-long survey, which ended on July 15, featured 33 questions.

-New Straits Times