Japanese Public Sleeping

April 14th, 2010By Category: Travel

Tokyo Alpha Blogger Shibuya246 recently took a peak at public sleeping on Japanese public transport – something everyone quickly gets familiar with.

Just a typical train ride on the Keiyo Line. How many people can you spot asleep here?

Japanese train travelers often find themselves with a 30 minute or longer train ride where they can either read a book, surf the web on their phone, listen to some music or maybe just catch up on some much needed sleep. The art of the “power nap” is not falling in to such a deep sleep so that you don’t know when to get off the train, but being able to shut down your power unit so you can recharge your batteries sufficiently for the rest of the day or nights activities.

Definitely looks like the sleeping was catching here. Once one person drifted off the others soon followed.

On the Yamanote line you don’t see as many people sleeping because the stops between the stations are quite frequent, roughly every 3 minutes. On the lines like this one heading out to Chiba each station is spread further apart and the trains are often heated from under the seats. If you sit on one of those seats for a while with the doors shut, you can easily fall asleep.

Even the guy standing by the door is having trouble staying awake.

On a very crowded train its easy to just close my eyes and “power nap” for 15 minutes standing up. When you get off at the your destination you actually feel quite refreshed. It would be interesting to see if anyone has done research into whether our bodies are healthier by having many small naps during the day, rather than just sleeping once for a long period at night? I am definitively in favor of small “power naps”. I used to enjoy this on the trains until I started carrying my iPhone with me. Now I find I am checking mail or surfing the web rather than getting my batteries recharged. Recently, my battery is only lasting about as long as the iPhone’s and that is not long enough.

Do you nap on the train in Japan?  In case you do we took a look at the top 10 tips to secure your seat and help you sleep away your commute.  More on Japan, business, life, culture and Shibuya at shibuya26.com (follow on Twitter @shibuya246).

Author of this article

GaijinPot

GaijinPot is an online community for foreigners living in Japan, providing information on everything you need to know about enjoying life here, from finding a job and accommodation to having fun.

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Comments

  • Snoring is not only unpleasant for your partner in bed (or in the worst case first). It can be a sign of a dangerous disease called sleep apnea. It will be great!!! if you have some devices to help you please see at http://www.antisnorepillow.us/

  • snoozy says:

    I like you used the picture of Nemurineko.
    It's nice.

  • gen says:

    excuse me for being racist, but lots of canadians take power-naps too. oh wait, what did “racist” mean again? Maybe Yoshi should join me in looking up “racist” in the dictionary

  • lu lu says:

    I think there are a few reasons for Japanese “train nappers”. 1) is because they are tired. 2) they dont want to have to give up their seat to an elderly/ less able passenger so pretend to be asleep (this isnt a “racist” comment by the way – my 9 month pregnant Japanese friend always complains about this) 3) If they stay awake, they have to stare at the crotch of the person stood in front of them (if they dont have a phone or book on them) so closing their eyes helps to avoid this awkward space.

    Calling this article racist is RIDICULOUS! It trivializes real racism. I'm British and I can tell you that British people love drinking tea and British men adore football and cricket on a sunday. How dare I make such outrageous cultural observations?!?!?! ….. Or perhaps it's simply that I'm making a lighthearted, harmless comment on a nation's people?!?!

  • KOBE says:

    I may not be in Japan long enough to know about sleeping on train ride, but I do know that back in my own country where we had our military training, we were told to grab our '15 mins power-nap' as and when there is a chance. This actually recharges you and making you feel much refreshed and ready for the day's challenge ahead!

  • cuchulinn says:

    In Ireland..You don`t see people nap as much on public transport. But Japan in a lot of ways, is pretty unique. Weird and wonderful as one friend put it

  • Mix says:

    So when their mouths hang open and keitais fall out of their hands and they start leaning heavily on their neighbors (who are most times strangers) or better yet when they start to snore, they aren't sleeping? Coulda fooled me!
    Nothing racist about the article in my opinion. It just is what is.

  • zi-chan says:

    it's already normal for people in japan to have a small nap in train as they need to struggle with the time! “Time is GOLD” right?

  • hal101 says:

    I think it could apply to anyone…people often rest their eyes by closing them, no?

  • yoshi says:

    Just because their eyes always look like they are closed doesn't mean they are sleeping! What a racist article!

  • n/a says:

    “It would be interesting to see if anyone has done research into whether our bodies are healthier by having many small naps during the day, rather than just sleeping once for a long period at night?”

    Actually I was reading study some time ago about what’s more healthy long afternoon nap or few short naps during the day? The researchers said in that article, that short 5-20 min. naps are actually much better in refreshing your body than longer periods of sleep. This doesn’t include night time sleep however, but a day-time nap.

    I’m not a scientist so don’t ask me why, but since I read that magazine I actually noticed I am generally quite recharged after 15-20 min. short nap as opposed to long 1-2 hour nap when my head start to hurt or I actually feel even sleepier after.

  • GV100 says:

    SO FUNNY! VERY JAPAN.
    I love this story!
    ZzzZZ sleep well while you can, 企業戦士s!

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