>
Eat, work, sleep, repeat? Scientists reveal what the average person’s day looks like – so does it sound familiar?
- Scientists claim that the average person spends more than six hours every day having fun
- They also spend about five minutes preparing meals and sleep for nine hours
- This is despite working 41 hours a week – an average in 58 countries
“Eat, work, sleep and repeat” can often become a mantra for city dwellers in the rat race.
But you may be surprised to know that the average person spends most of their time doing things they enjoy – despite working 41 hours a week.
Researchers at Canada’s McGill University have revealed what a normal day looks like for typical people in 58 countries.
It turned out that 3.4 hours are spent every day making, cultivating and caring for things, while 2.5 hours are spent on hygiene.
“We found that most of the time is really focused on the human itself, a little over nine hours,” explains study author Eric Galbraith.
Canada’s McGill University has revealed what a typical day looks like for typical people
“Most of these — about 6.5 hours — are doing things we enjoy, like going out, watching TV, socializing, and exercising.”
Experts collected numerous national surveys to find out what a typical day looks like for 60 percent of the world’s population.
Individual behavior was then carefully analyzed, focusing on everything from mopping dirty surfaces to handling petroleum.
You may be surprised to learn that preparing meals – including washing up, cooking and clearing up – takes an average of just 55 minutes.
But fishing, crop production and other farming activities take 52 minutes (0.9 hours), while eating takes about 96 minutes (1.6 hours) each day.
Meanwhile, taking a shower and taking care of our health also takes about 2.5 hours, while throwing out garbage takes less than a few minutes.
Don’t worry if you can’t relate to this.
Professor Galbraith explains that some results may be biased by the inclusion of children.
The average human also spends about five minutes preparing meals and nine hours sleeping
He points to average sleep as an example of this, which may not be the full picture after nine hours.
Children can snooze for up to 11 hours on average, while adults usually sleep late only seven and a half.
“It also includes time in bed and not sleeping, which can be as much as an hour a day,” he added.
In addition, Professor Galbraith recognizes that there are some major cultural and economic differences between countries.
For example, while a typical day includes only 12 minutes (0.2 hours) of religious practice, beliefs vary greatly from country to country.
And while the average person spends just 2.4 minutes (0.04 hours) extracting energy, this may not be the case for numerous countries in Africa and the Middle East that were excluded from the study, largely because there no accessible data.
“There are some things that vary a lot based on income and cultural differences,” Professor Galbraith said.
‘For example, people in poor countries spend a lot of time farming, unlike rich countries. And there are big things like the time spent preparing food, from half an hour to almost three times that.
“But for many things, such as how much time people spend moving from place to place, there is little difference between countries.”