38% of us are running on too little sleep.
That is the finding from NHMS 2023, which found that 38% of Malaysian adults get fewer than seven hours of sleep in a typical 24 hours. In urban areas, and among people in their forties and fifties, it climbs past 40%. I read that number and felt caught, because since going self-employed, my own work has a habit of spilling into the hours that used to be for sleeping.
Not the worst in the region, but close enough to worry
Before anyone tells me this is overblown, The Star checked whether Malaysia is Southeast Asia's most sleep-deprived country, and the answer was no. A 2023 regional survey of 3,000 people found the Philippines worst off at 56% reporting weekly sleep problems, followed by Thailand at 49%, Indonesia at 44% and Vietnam at 43%. Malaysia tied with Singapore at 42%, which puts us second to last in the region.
Second to last is not a badge of honour. It just means almost everyone around us is exhausted too, which somehow makes it easier to ignore.
Why the middle years hit hardest
The NHMS data shows sleep deprivation is worst among people in their forties and fifties, over 40% of them getting less than seven hours. That tracks with what I see around me. Those are the years when a career is at its busiest, when kids need help with homework or driving to tuition, when ageing parents need checking on, sometimes all on the same evening. Sleep is the one commitment on the calendar with no fixed time, so it is the first thing that gets pushed to make room for everything else.
For me, self-employment made this worse before it made it better. There is no boss telling you to log off, and when the next invoice depends entirely on you, midnight starts to feel like just another hour on the clock. I am not proud of some of the nights I have kept going long after I should have stopped.
The part that actually alarms me: what happens behind the wheel
Here is the figure that made me put my phone down and think. In February 2026, MIROS said that microsleep, nodding off for two to ten seconds, sometimes with your eyes still open, causes about 20% of Malaysia's road accidents every year, including fatal ones. One in five. That is not a small print statistic. That is one in every five crashes on our roads tied to someone's body shutting off for a few seconds behind the wheel.
MIROS's advice is blunt: aim for seven hours of proper sleep, and if you feel yourself fidgeting in your seat or driving inconsistently, those are early warning signs. Pull into a rest stop. Do not push through to save twenty minutes, because the maths on that trade is terrible. I drive a lot for work, often after a long day at the laptop, and this is the one habit I am changing without negotiating with myself about it.
What poor sleep does to the rest of you
Beyond the road, the NHMS-linked research ties insufficient sleep to obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and depression, on top of the more obvious effects on concentration, memory, reaction time and judgment. None of that is exotic or surprising once you have lived through a week of five-hour nights. You forget things. You snap at people you love. You make a decision at 11pm that you would not make at 8am. The body eventually sends the bill, one way or another.
What I am actually going to do about it
I am guilty of most of what I am about to tell you, so consider this a note to myself as much as to you.
Protect a fixed bedtime like it is a client meeting you cannot cancel. Put it in the calendar if that is what it takes. Cut the screen time in the hour before bed, because scrolling one more thing is rarely the thing that actually needed doing at that hour. If you are driving and you notice yourself fidgeting or your speed drifting, pull over and rest rather than gambling on the last stretch home. And maybe the hardest one: stop treating exhaustion as proof that you are working hard. Running on four hours of sleep is not a flex. It is a risk you are quietly taking with your health and, if you are driving, with everyone else on the road too.
The bottom line
Thirty eight percent of us are short on sleep, and the people carrying the most, career, family, ageing parents, are the ones sleeping the least. That is backwards, and it is costing us more than we admit, from our health to what happens on the highway. I cannot fix my whole schedule tonight, but I can stop pretending that running on empty is something to be proud of. That much I can start today.
Figures are from the sources linked above, as published up to September 2026. This article is general information, not medical advice, so speak to a doctor if sleep issues persist.
Kamarul Azwan (k.azwan@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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