This week, as part of their Crossing Continents series, the BBC broadcast an investigation into the rising problem of insomnia in South Korea. The programme was entitled Sleepless in Seoul.
According to the programme, Koreans work and study harder, sleep less and have higher rates of suicide and depression than almost anywhere else in the world. It’s a hyper-capitalist, competitive nation with very long working hours. Despite government pleas, Korean employers are notoriously bad at respecting boundaries or the idea of a work-life balance.
And so the number of people with insomnia in Korea is apparently increasing by around 8% a year. To address this dire situation, as you might expect, there is now a burgeoning US$2.5 billion ‘sleep industry’ with solutions ranging from medication to sleep cafés and a renewed interest in traditional Buddhist meditation practices. But as journalist Se-Woong Koo concludes at the end of his BBC report:
Myriad services are offering advice and defences against the tribulations of life, but in fact the source of all this stress and sleeplessness is a system that demands more than … individuals can muster.
South Korea is considered a collectivistic society, one in which individuals’ needs are subservient to those of the group. And when aspects of such a society are so dysfunctional – as is so plainly the case in South Korea – then the capacity for individuals to manage their own wellbeing is greatly compromised.
So, what is to be done by those living in not only very pressured societies like South Korea but also our own society where overwork also poses a threat to overall wellbeing?
The Alexander Technique presents a unique take on this problem by ‘upskilling’ individuals to respond to the stimuli around them in non-habitual and healthier ways (you can read more about how it works here). The way this might impact on an individual’s relationship with society at large is a complex question and not one for this blog post. Yet, as a recent paper investigates, the Alexander Technique does seem to strengthen various positive aspects of individualism such as autonomy, self-awareness and self-confidence. It therefore arguably helps shift the dial away from intense or unreasonable societal expectations:
Finally, FM Alexander’s own words on this topic are a striking reminder of the potential reach of his Technique:
For in the mind of man lies the secret of his ability to resist, to conquer and finally to govern the circumstances of his life.
FM Alexander, Man’s Supreme Inheritance (first published 1910).