REGENSBURG, Germany -- Germans are the busiest and most industrious people in Europe, tirelessly on the go. Right? Wrong. They are tirelessly tired.

Germans are the biggest sleepy-heads in all of Europe, according to a pan-European survey, findings of which have surprised even the Germans themselves. While other Europeans are out working and playing, Germans are in bed fast asleep.

Results of the New Regensburg University Sleep Laboratory survey, dubbed the "Siesta Survey" in the tabloid press, have been the topic of afternoon TV talk shows - that is, assuming anyone is watching those afternoon TV talk shows.

Many of the viewers in front of TV sets during those afternoon shows are probably sound asleep, based on the survey findings which show that more Germans take siestas than any other europeans. Not even the Spanish, who invented the word, go in for afternoon siestas as much as the Germans.

Have we become a nation of nappers?" The fact is, a whopping 22 percent of Germans insist they need a postprandial snooze at least three times a week, according to sleep researchers at the University of Regensburg.

That compares to only 8 percent of Spaniards and 9 percent of Portuguese who indulge in siestas.

The English don't call it a siesta, but rather a little lie-down, and 15 percent of them go in for it, the rest of them presumably preferring to go out in the noon-day sun. That's on a par with the 16 percent of Italians who cherish their nap time, according to the survey of 19,000 Europeans.

While the talk shows and tabloids have discussed the issue at sleep-inducing length, survey author Dr. Juergen Zulley says he believes the reason Germans are so sleepy during the day is because they get too little sleep at night.

Ironically, this early-to-bed, early-to-rise regimen is counter- productive, Professor Zulley says. Perhaps it is all that honking and flushing, but Germans on average find it hard to sleep soundly when they go to bed early, he says.