Japanese businessman Daisuke Hori has said that he has maintained a sleep schedule of 30 minutes a day for roughly 17 years.
Saying that he wanted to demonstrate this, he began a weeklong livestream on YouTube on the night of September 9.
Controversy continued over scenes in which he closed his eyes or his face and sound were obscured during the broadcast, but those scenes alone do not confirm whether he was actually asleep.
3-Line Summary
1. Mr. Hori claims to sleep 30 minutes a day.
2. He began a YouTube livestream on September 9.
3. It is difficult to definitively determine whether he was asleep based on the broadcast scenes alone.
The Livestream Was a Plan to Demonstrate His “30-Minute Sleep” Claim
Mr. Hori has been introduced as the representative director of the Japan Short Sleeper Development Association, a general incorporated association, and has identified himself as what is known as a “short sleeper”—someone who sleeps for short periods as a result of acquired habits. The broadcast began as a way to answer questions such as, “Doesn’t he actually sleep at other times?” by making his daily life visible through a 24-hour camera.
According to reports, the broadcast was planned to run for 1 week, from September 9 to 16. This was the plan and purpose of attempting to prove his claim through the broadcast, and it needs to be distinguished from a confirmed result showing that the broadcast proved the claim.
His YouTube subscriber count also reportedly rose sharply as the broadcast drew attention. An entertainment reporter for a sports newspaper cited by dmenu News said that the number of subscribers had risen from 4만4천 on August 16 to more than 22만 on September 14. Reports also said that the number of simultaneous viewers reached tens of thousands at its peak, approaching 10만.
Head Spa and Aesthetic-Treatment Scenes Deepened the Questions
The controversy arose mainly from scenes in which he received treatments. On 9월 10, he appeared to be snoring during a head-spa massage, and Mr. Hori later explained that this was not sleep but a state of momentary drowsiness—a “microsleep”—that occurred approximately 10 times.
Questions were also raised during an aesthetic salon broadcast on 9월 13. After explaining the screen layout on the grounds that it was difficult to disclose the location, the broadcast reportedly had its sound turned off for approximately 30 minutes during the treatment, while the face of Mr. Hori, who was lying face down, was barely visible. Viewers questioned whether he was asleep during this interval, but the facts presented in reports go only as far as saying that the image and audio were limited.
It was reported that Yugo Uchiyama, a beauty correction practitioner who had appeared with him in an earlier treatment broadcast, and two people associated with the YouTuber “Chokawaii Sanjūsa” each explained on their own YouTube channels that Mr. Hori had not been asleep and uploaded apology videos, saying that they had caused a misunderstanding. Reactions also continued that this response itself had raised even more questions rather than calming the debate.
The X Spat Also Became Entangled With the Broadcast’s Key Issues
Valentine Hosokawa, a fighter and businessman, criticized on X on 9월 12 the decision to choose a treatment during the broadcast that was performed with the recipient’s eyes closed. Mr. Hori rebutted him, and the exchange of posts between the two developed into a public spat.
The central issue in this debate is not whether Mr. Hori declared that he “never sleeps at all,” but how clearly the livestream scenes demonstrate his explanation that he sleeps 30 minutes a day. For that reason, scenes that sounded like snoring, scenes in which he closed his eyes, and scenes in which his voice and face were obscured all became subjects of interest. However, portions of the broadcast alone cannot establish his sleep habits over 17 years or his actual condition in any particular scene.
This broadcast remains a case in which a person who has long claimed to sleep for short periods attempted a direct public verification, with the transparency of that process itself becoming the biggest issue.
References
Tags #DaisukeHori #堀大輔 #DaisukeHoriLivestream #ライブ配信 #30MinuteSleep #ShortSleeper #YouTubeLivestream #Microsleep #WeeklongLivestream #SleepControversy #JapaneseYouTube #XSpat