The man who claims to sleep 30 minutes a day was caught asleep on a livestream

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A few days ago I came across a clip from a livestream: a Japanese blogger known for "sleeping 30 minutes a day" sat motionless in front of the camera. The scrolling comments went from "he's meditating" to "he's asleep", and in the end he admitted that he had indeed fallen asleep.

Plenty of people watched, and the video sat in Japan's trending topics for days. I used it as a way into sleep science and looked into two questions: how long he had actually slept, and whether "30 minutes of sleep" makes any medical sense.

The event itself is not complicated

The man is Daisuke Hori, born in 1983, publicly the representative director of a sleep-related association, who claims to have kept his sleep at 30 minutes a day for seventeen years. On the evening of 9 September this year he began a seven-day, 24-hour continuous livestream. According to local media reports, by the second day of the stream (10 September) he went motionless for about 27 minutes while receiving a bone-setting massage and was heard snoring; on waking he explained that he had "microslept about ten times". As of publication the controversy over the stream is still being discussed locally.

The problem lies in that word. "Microsleep" refers to extremely brief fragments of sleep: medical sources mostly limit it to a few seconds up to fifteen seconds, and some extend the upper limit to around 30 seconds, and the person is often unaware of it; it is usually caused by lack of sleep or excessive drowsiness, and is especially dangerous while driving or operating machinery. On any of those definitions, more than twenty minutes of continuous stillness is not "micro" — that is simply being asleep.

Is 30 minutes a day possible?

The 2026 China Sleep Health Research White Paper gives these figures: in 2025 residents in China slept an average of 6.97 hours at night, fell asleep at an average of 0:10 and got up at an average of 7:27 — the duration here is sleep time recorded at night, which is not the same thing as "how long you lay in bed". In other words, most people need something close to the seven-hour mark, and the time they fall asleep keeps drifting later.

The medical field does discuss extreme short sleep, but there is no consensus on treating it as something that can be trained and generalised. The more practical problem is the cost: what insufficient sleep affects first is not physical strength but judgement — slower reactions, worse mood, a tendency to fixate on everything — and these changes are hard to notice in yourself.

Microsleep is not "not sleeping"

The media like to treat clips like this as entertainment, but "microsleep" is a serious word in the safety field. When it happens, the brain briefly cuts its information channel to the outside world, and the person often has no awareness on waking; if it happens while driving or operating machinery, a gap of a few seconds is enough to cause an accident. When researchers discuss it, the setting is usually not a livestream room but highways and night shifts.

In other words, the most easily overlooked part of short-sleep narratives is the cost: what can be compressed is not the need for sleep, but the ability to notice that you are sleepy. The less people sleep, the more likely they are to feel they are "doing fine".

"Zi wu jiao" in the old sayings

Chinese tradition has its own timetable for sleep too. The old saying "zi wu jiao" (子午觉, the zi and wu rest periods) holds that the two periods most in need of rest are zi hour at night (23:00 to 01:00) and wu hour at midday (11:00 to 13:00); sayings such as "work at sunrise, rest at sunset" also tie sleep to the hours of the sky. They are not medical conclusions, but they do not conflict with the direction of today's research — regularity is harder to achieve than duration, and more important.

What really deserves attention is the narrative of "I have cut my sleep to the shortest possible". It turns a body that needs care into an ability that needs proving.

When you are sleeping badly, do two things first

If you have slept badly for several weeks running, I would suggest doing two things first: one, note down your times of falling asleep and waking up, and see how much you actually slept; two, if you are already clearly drowsy during the day or your attention scatters, get a proper sleep assessment rather than forcing yourself on willpower.

If the trouble is not in your body but in the thoughts that churn once you lie down, there is another way: write the problems down clearly and line them up in order of time. It cannot replace a doctor's diagnosis, but it can help you see what you are worried about — if symptoms persist, please seek medical attention promptly.

Information in this article is current as of 15 September 2026; for any physical discomfort, rely on the diagnosis of a professional medical institution.

Disclaimer: This article covers traditional culture and folk custom and is for entertainment and self-reflection only. It does not constitute medical, psychological, investment, legal or marital decision-making advice. Please do not submit sensitive personal information such as ID numbers or detailed addresses. If you have persistent insomnia, anxiety or physical discomfort, please seek medical attention or consult a professional promptly. This article does not constitute medical advice; for specific medication and treatment, please follow your doctor's instructions.

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