Thais sleep the least among Asia-Pacific countries and spend the longest time on non-work internet browsing, according to AIA Group's Healthy Living survey in Asia Pacific.
The pan-Asian life insurance group learned the unhealthy habits of Thai people from its survey on about 10,000 adults in 15 countries in Asia Pacific in the first half of this year. Of all respondents, 750 were Thai people.
AIA found that Thais slept 6.3 hours a day, the lowest among the 15 markets surveyed, although they said they wished to sleep 7.7 hours.
Besides Thais, Malaysians and South Koreans got the same amount of sleep.
A majority of Thais also admitted to unhealthy eating habits such as eating while distracted (90%), eating unhealthy snacks (89%), eating and drinking on the go (84%) and eating dinner close to bedtime (82%).
They also had misperceptions about healthy foods -- that they were more expensive (89%), did not taste very good (76%), were harder to prepare (71%) and took longer (67%) to cook.
The survey also found that adults who were online in Thailand spent five hours a day on the internet for non-work purposes, the highest in the region.
They did so even though they were aware excessive internet surfing had negative impacts on their health: less time for exercise (83%), less time for sleep (81%) and bad for their posture (81%).
Despite the awareness, change would be difficult, with 75% admitting to being addicted to spending time online, much higher than regional average of 57%.
With the proliferation of connectivity and device ownership, internet addiction would most likely increase, AIA Group stated.
It also raised concern on the health of the next generation of Thais as the majority of interviewed Thai parents said their children did not get enough exercise (72%) nor sleep (60%).
Too much screen time -- being online, playing video games, watching TV -- and homework are seen as the culprits, according to the survey.