The siesta culture concept is not supported by the sleep habits of urban Mexican students

SUMMARY Evidence in support for the concept of the so-called ‘siesta culture’ is not well developedand has, to date, relied largely on qualitative anthropological data. Presumably suchculturesarecharacterizedbyastrongtendencyfordaytimenapsanddaytimesleepiness,phenomena which may partially represent the eVects of geographic, climatic or lightconditions and/or cultural influences. In this study we surveyed the nocturnal sleephabits and daytime sleep tendencies of 577 Mexican college students residing in MexicoCity (19°N latitude). Results indicated a number of parallels between the reportedsleep habits of these students and those reported from other cultures at latitudes farto the north (North America, Europe), such as longer sleep at the weekends, anassociation between snoring and daytime sleepiness and a lack of relationship betweennocturnal sleep duration and the reported tendency to nap. There was some suggestionthat these Mexican students may actually nap less when compared to other collegestudent populations. Taken together, these results call into question what is meant bythe concept of a ‘siesta culture’, at least in this urban, educated, upper social economicscale (SES) population, and suggest that future studies in equatorial regions beundertaken to further appreciate the role of climate, photoperiod and/or culture inthe tendency for humans to nap during the day.keywords college student, cultural sleep habits, napping, siesta, sleepiness, snoring,young adults