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UNDERSTANDING SPANIARDS

Are Spaniards the world’s most misunderstood sleepers?

It's a timeworn cliché that Spaniards have a siesta every day, and yet the data reveals that they actually sleep far less than some of their European neighbours. Why are Spaniards 'different' when it comes to sleep?

Published: 9 May 2024 10:47 CEST
Are Spaniards the world's most misunderstood sleepers?
A shopper watches people taking part in the first Siesta Championships in Madrid in 2010. Photo: DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP.

Along with their supposed obsession with bullfighting and constant sipping on sangría, one of the timeless (yet misunderstood) stereotypes that foreigners have of Spaniards is that they have a siesta every day.

In reality, this is far from the truth. Often foreigners can mistake the laid back pace of life in Spain, combined with the easy going nature of many Spaniards and tradition of siestas (more on the history below) as evidence that Spaniards must sleep a lot.

In more reductionist terms, this leads to Spaniards sometimes being incorrectly characterised as lazy or work shy — any culture that has a tradition of taking a nap during the day must sleep more, right?

This is one of those cultural stereotypes that just feels right, even though the reality is quite different.

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Not only do Spaniards work more on average than many of their European neighbours, according to OECD figures, but new data has revealed that they actually  sleep less than many others around the continent. Less, even, than many of their supposedly harder working Northern European neighbours.

According to statistics from the Sleep Cycle app, Spaniards sleep on average 7 hours and 13 minutes per day (or night).

For context, that makes Spain one of the countries with the lowest average sleep hours on the continent. Europe’s deepest sleepers are found in Holland and Finland (7 hours 37 minutes) followed by countries like the UK (7.33), Ireland (7.30) and France (7.29).

At the other end of the sleep spectrum, among the continent’s lightest sleepers (or those that sleep the least) are Italy (7.09), Russia (7.07), Poland (7.04) and Turkey, where Turks sleep an average of just 6.5 hours per night.

The reality

So, we know that Spaniards sleep less on average than many other nationalities. But what about siestas specifically?

Although many children and the elderly may choose to take a nap, most working people in Spain don’t have time to take a snooze during the working day.

According to survey data from 2016, 58 percent of Spaniards never take a siesta, while just 18 percent say they do so at least four days a week. Another 16 percent said they have one between one and three days a week, and 8 percent even less frequently than that.

In fact, data aside, anecdotally speaking many Spaniards claim they don’t sleep enough (siesta or no siesta) and they’d probably admit they should get more shut eye. The long-held siesta stereotype about Spain comes, in part, from history, climate and cliché, but also the structure of the Spanish working and social day.

“Most workers have a split shift, and that ends up delaying our whole day. We Spaniards tend to have dinner after nine o’clock at night, and this means that we go to bed without having fully digested our food,” says Adela Fraile, sleep specialist at the HM Puerta del Sur University Hospital in Madrid.

This late eating custom, which usually means eating lunch between 2-4pm and then dinner anywhere from 9-11pm, is often the first thing many foreigners notice about Spain. But it’s not just that. As food is such an integral part of Spanish culture, other parts of life fit around lunch and dinner, rather than the other way around.

One example of this is the lateness of Spain’s prime time TV slot.

“We are also used to watching TV after dinner, and as prime time programmes start late, we often end up staying up until they finish,” Fraile adds. “Using devices such as computers, tablets or consoles in bed doesn’t help either… the German and the Spaniard get up at the same time, but the Spaniard has gone to bed later,” she concludes.

READ ALSO: Sleepless Spaniards slam ‘late’ prime-time TV

Nazi time zones

There’s also another slightly darker, historical explanation for the unconventional timekeeping and body clocks of Spaniards: the Nazis.

Although officially neutral during the Second World War, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco, who was keen to show his thanks for Nazi support during the Spanish Civil War, demonstrated this to Hitler by agreeing to put Spain’s clocks forward by an hour in an act of solidarity with Nazi Germany.

READ ALSO: Why Spain is still in the wrong time zone because of Hitler

Spain has remained in the Central European Time zone ever since, in line with countries as far east as Poland. That means that Madrid currently has the same time as Warsaw in Poland 2,290km away but is one hour ahead of Lisbon which is only 502 km away.

This bizarre historical quirk has had a lasting impact on Spanish culture and society that underpins everything from Spaniard’s sleep cycles and meal times to the country’s birth rates and economic growth.

In recent years there have been calls to make the switch back to GMT because many believe the time zone quirk is affecting Spaniard’s productivity and quality of life. In 2013 a Spanish national commission concluded that Spaniards sleep significantly less than the European average, and that this led to increased stress, concentration problems, both at school and work, and workplace accidents.

The history of siestas

So, where does the siesta fit into all this?

After the Spanish Civil War, it was common for people to work two jobs to support their families: one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Taking a longer two-hour break allowed them to rest before starting their next job, and often this (understandably) included a nap.

Siestas were also used as a way to avoid midday heat, especially among agricultural workers. Spain is not alone in this tradition: workers in other countries close to the equator, such as Greece, Mexico, Ecuador, the Philippines, Costa Rica and Nigeria, observe similar sleep schedules.

These working hours, roughly 8/9am-2pm and 4pm-8pm, have endured in Spanish work culture until today, despite the fact that most Spaniards don’t work outside, have two jobs or take siestas for that matter.

When American in Spain Melissa Perri posed the question to Spaniards only “When do you sleep? Are you vampires?” one Spaniard replied “We have a culture built around the siesta and no time to take siestas any more, so people are getting less sleep than they need”.

The future of siestas

So, what of siestas in the future? As the data shows, Spaniards sleep less than most other countries, and very few Spaniards actually take a siesta during the working week. In that sense, siestas could continue their downward trajectory and slowly die out over time.

Recent proposals by the Spanish government to cut the working week, which would likely mean that many Spaniards have a shorter lunch break and finish work earlier, say around 5pm or 6pm, would probably accentuate this trend and remove the need for afternoon naps for many people.

READ ALSO: Spain set to slash work week to 37.5 hours

However, there’s also some evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic caused a slight resurgence in siesta sleeping among Spaniards. The rise of remote working (known as teletrabajo in Spanish) led many to reassess their sleeping habits, and as time goes on and the working world becomes increasingly digitised and online, perhaps Spaniards will begin splitting up the day again when working from home.

One thing seems certain, however. Siestas, like bullfighting and sangría and screaming olé for no good reason, will probably live on as a Spanish stereotype for a long while yet.

Now, time for a lie down.

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POLITICS

Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

Catalan separatist politicians have taken on kingmaker roles in Spanish politics in recent months, but Catalans themselves increasingly see independence as unlikely. Which Catalans still support independence and which don't?

Published: 10 May 2024 11:39 CEST
Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

Catalan separatists are playing an increasingly crucial role in politics at the national level in Spain, but the vast majority of Catalans themselves see the prospect of independence as increasingly unlikely.

This is according to annual survey data released by the Institute of Political and Social Sciences (ICPS) in Catalonia, which revealed that just 5 percent of Catalans polled believe that an independent Catalonia will ever become a reality. In 2015 that figure was 17 percent.

The survey also confirmed that support for independence (39.5 percent) remains well below support for staying within Spain (52.5 percent). Catalans will go to the polls in regional elections on May 12th in a vote many view as crucial for the stability of the national government.

Catalan pro-independence parties, namely Junts per Cataluyna and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, have essentially become kingmakers in Spanish politics following July 2023’s general election result and subsequent amnesty deal offered by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to cling onto power.

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Often when the Catalan question is discussed, particularly in the context of national politics, broad strokes statements are made about the people and politics in the region. Catalans are all separatists, some say. Some even say they are terrorists, or that only far-left radicals want independence.

But who really still wants independence? What are the demographics behind Catalan separatism, and what does it tell us about the future of the movement?

Age breakdown

A study by the Generalitat revealed that younger voters, between 16- 42, generally show less enthusiasm for independence than older voters. Young people are more likely to show preference for the current model (of Catalonia as a region within Spain) rather than full independence, according to a survey by the Catalan Centre for Opinion Studies (CEO) cited by El País.

CEO polling groups respondents by age, the ‘silent generation’ (over 78); ‘baby boomers’ (between 59 and 77); ‘generation X’ (between 43 and 58); ‘millennials’ (between 27 and 42) and ‘generation Z’ (between 16 and 26).

The results were stark. When asked “what should be the relationship between Catalonia and Spain” the preference for independence only exceeded 30 percent among baby boomers (34 percent) and generation X (32 percent). But even within these age groups, the most pro-independence, a fully-independent Catalonia barely convinced more than a quarter to a third of respondents.

Among younger people, however, regional autonomy was the preferred option for millennials (28 percent) and generation Z (29 percent), ahead of an independent Catalonia, which appealed to 26 percent and 23 percent respectively. Interestingly, in this sense young people are closer to their grandparents’ views than to their parents’ generation on the question of independence. Among the silent generation, regional autonomy within Spain had 33 percent support, and 27 percent supported an independent Catalonia.

A demonstrator waves a half-Spanish and half-Senyera flag during a protest by far-right party Vox against the government in Barcelona in 2020. (Photo by Pau Barrena / AFP)

Young men

Furthermore, delving further into the graphics, it becomes clear that young men are some of the least likely people to support Catalan independence. A survey published by Òmnium points to “a marked conservative movement and a move away from the fundamental values of sovereignty among the country’s youth” more generally but specifically among young men.

Young men, the study demonstrates, are the most ‘espanyolistas’ in the region, in other words, the least favourable towards Catalan independence and most likely to be pro-centralisation and Spanish. They are also the ones who view using the Catalan language as a lesser priority. However, this isn’t an isolated policy issue, and young men in the region are also more likely to be sceptical about climate change, the least in favour of paying taxes, the least feminist, and those who perceive the threat of the extreme right as the least relevant.

The study termed this the ‘derechización‘ (what we might call the ‘right-wingisation’ in English) of young men, a trend across the rest of the country and the world in recent years.

Class and income

Income and social class also play a role in pro-separatist politics, and the data suggests that separatism is more popular among people self-describing as ‘comfortably off’.

According to data from the CEO cited by El País in 2017, the real flashpoint of separatist politics in Catalonia, around a third (32 percent) of Catalans earning less than €900 were in favour of independence. However, over half (53 percent) of respondents earning €1,800 or more per month were pro-independence, while 54 percent of the wealthy (monthly income of €4,000 or more per month) wanted to see an independent Catalonia.

This also ties into educational level and class. Data compiled by the London School of Economics shows that independence is most popular among the highly educated (secondary and university levels), something that makes higher incomes levels more attainable and upward social mobility more likely.

Catalan origins

Interestingly, it seems that Catalans born outside Catalonia are more likely to be on lower incomes and therefore less likely to hold pro-separatist views. There also seems to be evidence that having a multi-generational Catalan background makes you more likely to be pro-independence.

As El País states, “even more glaring is the relationship between background and pro-independence sentiment. Among third generation Catalans – those with both parents and all four grandparents born in Catalonia – support for independence rises to 75 percent.”

“But this figure drops drastically when it comes to families with more varied backgrounds. Support for independence stands at 49 percent among those with one parent from outside the region and drops to 29 percent among children of immigrants.”

Geography

Geography also plays a role. As these municipality map breakdowns by RTVE show, if the population living in each area is taken into account, as in the second map, you can see that in the largest municipalities, such as Barcelona and its surrounding metropolitan area, the non-nationalist bloc holds the greatest electoral weight.

The maps are stark, but population even things even out: in municipalities where there was a nationalist or pro-independence majority in 2021, found largely in the country and smaller towns, slightly over 3 million Catalans live; but in the big cities, where people are more likely to be sceptical, that figure is almost 5 million.

As the Royal Elcano Institute put it in its analysis of the post-2017 political chaos, Catalan independence bucks the traditional rural/urban split: “While Scottish independence is viewed more favourably in big cities, in Catalonia the territorial divide is the reverse: rural areas register a majority in favour of independence, with urban areas having a majority against.”

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