Asia’s Culture of Sleep-Deprivation: How to Innovate to Nudge Societal Norms

This January, I toured South Korea, China, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong’s education systems alongside 30 other graduate students from Harvard and MIT.  The theme that we heard over and over again from high school students when we asked them how much time they spent studying was, “If you sleep 4 hours, you pass, if you sleep 5 hours, you fail.” Research and surveys show that this trend is indeed the norm, with implications on youth’s health and correlations to anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders.

Looking at tools of well-being, how can we innovate on societal behavior norm changes?  Apart policy changes to reform the test-based educational system that create immense pressure and competition for students to get into top schools, what are ways to provide parents and students outlets and well-being resources to reassert a school/life balance for sleep?

Could social networks can exert positive pressure through disseminating health findings to parents and students?  Could behavior economical principles in Cass Sunstein’s book “Nudge” be used to influence behavioral change? Could positive storytelling through honest stories of “How they did it? by high-achieving and successful young Koreans change the perception that sacrificing sleep to study is the only path to success?

What are other tools that we can innovate in cultures where sleep deprivation is seen as a necessary sacrifice?

Jenny Jin, first year MBA student at MIT Sloan