Ready, set, snooze: Sleep-deprived Japanese compete for best-rested

In diligent, exhausted Japan, self-described elite "competitive sleepers" vied to lie down, relax and nap the fastest and deepest in a contest organised by a mattress company.

The Tokyo competition, dubbed "Matt Race", saw dozens of participants fitted with sleep tracking devices sprawl on comfy mattresses to slumber for up to 90 minutes Monday, competing for the top prize of over two million yen ($14,000).

"Japan is often described as a country suffering from sleep deprivation, and people here are very diligent," Riichiro Nakama, creative director at organiser Koala Sleep Japan, the mattress company.

Inside a dimly lit room, participants slept with monitors attached to their heads, some cradling stuffed toys in their beds.

"By turning it into an event like this, I think we can get people to sleep together, raise interest in sleep," Nakama said.

OECD data showed in 2021 that Japanese people slept an average seven hours 24 minutes a day -- the least of all OECD nations within the group -- with experts citing long working and commuting hours and a busy nightlife economy as among contributing factors. 

"It was over in an instant. I almost wish I could have slept a little longer," participant Chisato Honda, 32, told AFP.

"It was a happy competition," he added.

The winner was chosen based on how quickly and soundly they slept.

"I want to live on my own, so I think I'll use the money for the moving costs," said Suimii, the contest winner who only gave her nickname.

"I also want a bed like a princess's, so I think I'll buy that bed."