Busy city folk dream of sleep

If the people of Shanghai had an extra hour every day they would spend it in bed ... sleeping, a survey has found.

The fast pace of life, stress of work and family commitments are leaving people washed out and weary, the Shanghai Statistics Bureau claimed.

In the poll of 751 people aged 16 and above, 41 percent said they never have enough time to do the things they need to do. Among people under 40, the proportion was even higher at 55 percent.

Mao Jun, a 26-year-old office worker, said she never gets enough sleep as she has to spend more than three hours a day commuting.

"Even when I do finally get home, I often have to carry on working, writing reports," she said.

Despite the stress, she said she won't give up on her career as she works for a major international firm and has a promising future.

The most time-consuming activities among male respondents in the poll were work, leisure and household chores, while the top three for females were housework, helping elderly relatives and caring for children.

A majority of people said they often reduced their sleep time to allow more hours to do other things.

A third of male respondents said that if their day was shortened to 23 hours, sleep would be the first thing to be cut, while just a quarter of the females polled thought the same way.

In contrast, people under 40 said they would lose the hour from their work time.