People in this Aussie city get the best sleep

Getting a good night’s sleep is vital for your health and well-being, but did you know the average person loses 401 hours of sleep per year?

That’s nearly 17 days. And as it turns out there are some Aussies that get more sleep than others and it all comes down to where they live.

The cities getting the best rest

To identify which cities get the most shut-eye, experts at Lenstore looked worldwide. Coming in the top spot - Canberra.

That’s right, our nation’s capital comes out number one for getting restful sleep, proving some politicians at least CAN lie straight in bed (or perhaps in some cases are just sleeping on the job?).

Interestingly, Canberra scores lowest on the amount of night lights and noise pollution, with 80.82 out of 100.

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Vienna, Austria, is also a great place to get some rest, followed by Luxembourg City, Luxembourg, where just 7.6 per cent of residents work more than 48 hours per week. Jerusalem, Israel, has the ideal climate for sleep, with temperature close to ideal (19.2°C) and the lowest humidity.

Tokyo, Japan, has fewest people in need of sleep medication, with one of the lowest search volumes for sleeping pills, at only 18 searches per 100,000 people.

What poor sleep does to body and mind

Joe Mitton, personal trainer and owner of Mitt-Fit says sleep plays a vital role in our physical and mental health, for both positive and negative reasons.

“Not enough sleep will hinder your recovery, focus, stress, and energy levels, as well as affecting your hormonal balance, with the most severe cases of insomnia even leading to psychiatric conditions, as well as many unfavourable health consequences,” Joe said.

Suzanna Guest, occupational psychologist agrees.

“If we’ve had a bad night’s sleep, concentration will be impaired, and this can also impact our memory and ability to make good decisions,” Suzanna said.

Lack of sleep can slow our reactions and we are also more easily overstimulated. This can make demanding tasks more difficult and possibly dangerous.

The eyes have it

Great sleep is also vital for maintaining healthy vision. Roshni Patel BSC (Hons) MCOptom, says sleep protects your vision and lack of rest can quickly bring unsettling symptoms, such as dark circles, drooping eyelids, twitchy eyes or spasms and puffy eyes.

Lack of sleep also increases your chances of developing an eye infection.

“To lose over 30,000 hours of sleep over 50 years is both staggering and shocking, and will undoubtedly have effects on not only your eye health but overall health and wellbeing,” Roshni said.

Losing sleep

The average person gets only six hours and 54 minutes of sleep each night, according to studies, and while this may seem relatively normal, we should be getting a full eight hours.

That means we miss out on a staggering 66 minutes of quality rest daily, and these figures stack up significantly over long periods.

Worst cities for sleep

Sleep is a valuable commodity in the modern world and, with noise, light pollution and stress keeping many of us from having good quality sleep, it’s more important than ever to get a full eight hours, especially if you want to be “bright eyed and bushy tailed” in the morning.

So what cities should you avoid if better sleep is on your agenda?

The worst cities for sleep are:

• Washington, USA - more people searched for “sleeping pills” than anywhere else in the research.

• Santiago, Chile - worst air quality.

• San José, Costa Rica - highest humidity, an average of 83%.

• Warsaw, Poland - poor air quality and high humidity.

• Bogota, Columbia - 27.80% working more than 48 hours a week, the second-highest in the research after Mexico City.

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