Santa consumes 136 thousand tons of mince pies and over 138 million litres of sherry over Christmas, according to research from sleep specialists and bed suppliers Time4Sleep.
The research, which investigated Santa’s eating, drinking and sleeping habits over the festive period, found that his 24-hour trip around the world sees him visiting 2.3 billion households and taking in 530 billion calories in mince pies alone. Santa also drinks 134 billion calories in sherry. This combined calorie intake of 664 billion is 266 million times the NHS weekly recommended amount and is enough to sustain Santa for 727 thousand years.
The research also found that Santa will be drinking the equivalent of 1 billion pints of Carling lager. He consumes 2.5 billion units of sherry on Christmas Eve alone, putting him 181 million times over the NHS weekly recommended alcohol intake.
Santa’s lack of sleep was also a cause for concern. His night shift sees him working for 24 hours straight, and his sleep deprivation over the period means his reaction times are reduced by 15.4%.
Dr Deborah Lee, medical writer and doctor at Dr Fox, commented:
“After 24 hours of sleep deprivation, Santa would be expected to feel drowsy. Short term sleep loss affects our neuromuscular function, coordination and reaction times. Brain function becomes less sharp, with impaired judgements, and poor decision-making. Hand-eye coordination worsens and there is an increase in ‘near miss’ accidents. We find our memory of recent events is starting to fail.
Other effects of sleep deprivation are moodiness, irritability and being short-tempered – not the jolly Santa we know and love!”
Jonathan Warren, CEO at Time4Sleep said of the research:
“A lack of sleep combined with excessive alcohol consumption can lead to a whole host of health issues. We wanted to look at one of the hardest workers at this time of year to see how his work, sleep and diet were affected.
We were shocked by the research showing just how much Santa consumes over Christmas Eve, particularly in terms of alcohol. This, combined with staying up all night, is opening him up to disordered sleep and can leave him feeling sleepy and grumpy on Christmas Day. We’d recommend everyone over the Christmas period – but especially Santa! – take it easy with their drinking and make sure they’re getting full night’s sleep to ensure a happy and healthy Christmas.”
