Sleep - Quality vs. Quantity

Out of kindness, a friend advised me not to multi-task and to get more sleep and rest. I listened to his advice and tried going to bed around 9.30pm to 10.30p.m. He said that everyone should get at least 7 to 8 hours of sleep.

However, I find that each time afer 5 solid hours of deep sleep, I would automatically get up. This is why I end up writing blogs at 3.45 to 4.45 a.m. sometimes. I cannot sleep more than 5 hours! It has been like that for the past 4 decades! Best of all, I have never had panda eyes despite the short hours of sleep!

I remember, once when I was in Primary Six, I decided I would sleep on the bench in the living room as my two sisters had gone to a party and I was scared of sleeping alone in the bedroom. (Thanks to the scary Pontianak (ghost) movie I had watched the day before!) Papa was writing his music in the living room. Around midnight, he heard a loud sound, and in his absent mindedness, he thought a coconut had probably dropped from a tree near our kampong (village) house. When my two sisters returned from the party, they were horrified to find me sleeping on the floor! Apparently I had fallen from the mother-of-pearl bench and had continued sleeping soundly.! Only then did papa realise that the sound he had heard earlier was not caused by a fallen coconut, but by his chubby little daughter!

Guess, I have not altered much in my sleeping pattern and idiosyncracies. I guess when I say I have been sleeping an average of 5 hours a day all these 40 years of my life, it translates into having an extra time of 5 years! Can my buddy, Professor Richard Tam, check my mathematical calculation please?

I am not a doctor or a mathematician. From my experience, I can only conclude that sleepiness and tiredness is all in the mind. Whenever I am bored, I will doze off. This is why I am terrified of attending convocations, boring lectures/sermons/movies etc. My travelling time in the bus, train and plane is always well utilised as I will fall asleep. Once my friends who were travelling with me to Kathmandu, tickled me with a feather as they could not stand the sight of me sleeping so soundly. They told me I never stirred at all!

I find that at home, there are so many interesting things to do that sleep becomes boring. There are so many worthy books to read, articles/letters to write, musical instruments to play and lovely music to listen to, new recipes to try out, great movies/documentaries to watch, etc. etc.! Why sleep and dream? Why not be awake and make our dreams a reality?

It is quite comforting to me to find out that most of the great politicians in the world also make do with 4 to 5 hours sleep a day. However, I am no politican lah...
just a kaypo (busybody) who is interested in too many activities in this beautiful world of ours.

Gan Chau