Which cities get the most sleep?

People in Melbourne sleep the most, people in Tokyo sleep the least, and Americans just need more sleep overall.

Those are some of the findings from a vast new dataset released to The Wall Street Journal by Jawbone, the makers of the UP, a digitized wristband that tracks how its users move and sleep.

The data tracks hundreds of thousands of UP users from Beijing to Orlando and gives an interesting glimpse into sleeping patterns, at least for those people who can afford to spend up to $150 for the gadget.

Since it isn’t a representative sample, it should be considered a reflection of how UP users sleep rather than the general population. Computerized wristbands have plenty of critics who say the technology can be unreliable. Jawbone also relies on users clicking a button to indicate when they fall asleep and wake up, which can’t match the reliability of smaller lab studies that use electrodes.

But with all that in mind, we can still compare UP users to each other and discover some interesting trends.

So what can we learn?

See an interactive version of these graphics.

Different Cities, Difference Lifestyles

Focusing on just one month (June 2013), we can see a stark difference in how people sleep and move. Users in metropolitan areas like New York have a grid-like routine: they get up early on weekdays, move a little during the day, and sleep in more on weekends. They also go to bed later each weekday and go to sleep earliest on Sundays. When you combine data on how many steps they take each day, the trend is even starker. Contrast that graph with users in Orlando or Beijing, where there’s a less distinction between how users sleep on weekends and weekdays.