16 August, 2017

By VIVA Team

Spaniards can expect to live to 82.8 years old - and they have their diet, lifestyle and the siesta to thank for that.

Spaniards can expect to live to 82.8 years old – and they have their diet, lifestyle and the siesta to thank for that.

Ah, the siesta: a much admired, mythologised portion of daily Spanish life that most other European nationalities look at with not a little envy and bemusement.

Aside from the very simple fact that nothing is really stopping Brits, Germans or Scandinavians from adopting their own siesta culture, the very notion of taking a two-to-three hour snooze break in the middle of the day is an alien concept to most cultures, but could the Spanish have been on to something all this time?…

In actual fact, Spaniards work some of the longest hours in Europe, and also live longer than any other European nationality – the question is, how much of this is down to the siesta?

The latest World Happiness Report 2017 ranked the leading nations on a series of metrics that determine happiness. Longevity was one and, after Japan, Spain ranked a rosy second place with an average life expectancy of 82.8 years.

Now this is nothing new, but for a long time researchers had – correctly – pointed the finger at Spain’s Mediterranean diet as the key reason why Spaniards live so long. But this report also thinks that the siesta has a special role to play, too.

“People think all the Spaniards are doing la siesta when the shops are closed between 2:00 and 5:00, but it is simply how the working shift is organised,” said Miquel Àngel Diez i Besora from Barcelona and Gray Line tour guide, reported the BBC. “If you have a continuous shift and just a half an hour break for lunch, then you eat a quick takeaway. On the contrary, if you are forced to stop for two or three hours, then you go home or go to a restaurant where you can sit down, eat two courses and dessert, and have time enough to digest well, it’s going to be healthier than a takeaway.”

So it’s not necessarily the sleep, but the relaxed way in which Spaniards dine and socialise during the day that may in fact be aiding their longevity. Another argument posited by the report was that Spain’s higher density towns and cities means that Spaniards are on foot for longer, and more likely to walk many kilometres over the course of an average day.