A recent survey shows that many people in Hong Kong are bona fide "night owls."

About 31 per cent of the population in the area go to bed at about 1 o'clock in the morning. The number of people in Taiwan going to bed at this time is 35 per cent, the highest in the world.

AC Nilson's latest global survey on people's sleeping habit involved interviewing about 14,000 people from 28 regions around the world. The results suggest that on average 37 per cent of people go to bed after midnight. Compared with people from other regions, Asians are the most hesitant to call it a day.

People from Taiwan stay awake the latest, then people in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan and South Korea.

People in Taiwan also are the last group of people in Asia to get up in the morning, with 26 pre cent admitting that they wouldn't get up until about 9 o'clock in the morning. People in Hong Kong are the second latest to get up, with 13 per cent staying in bed until about 9 a.m.

However, it seems that Hong Kong people enjoy plenty of sleep with almost 50 per cent having eight or more hours of sleep a night. Japanese people sleep the least. Only 18 per cent of Japanese can have 8-hour sleep a night.

The survey also suggests that the "night owls" are mostly in their twenties. In Asia however people in their thirties are more likely to sit up until after midnight.

According to the survey, long working hours are an important factor in how much sleep the respondents have.

Editor: Catherine