Sleep.....Zzzzzzzz.....

Zzzzzz


I am talking about a very important subject so it is good to know that folks from Qatar and Nepal has logged on to my blog. They are the 85th and 86th countries to have done so. I am going global in a small way.


Sleep is a natural and recurring state of reduced consciousness where your sensory activities are suspended with inactivity of nearly all voluntary muscles. When we sleep, we conserve energy and is at rest. The result of not getting enough sleep means a lack of rest and this may cause emotional, mental and physical fatigue where it can affect our moods and performance.


Our bodily functions such as repair and healing are affected by sleep or the lack of it. Sleep deprivation weakens our immune system so frequently when a person feels unwell or falls sick it is this reason alone that virus and bacteria attacks our weak immune system and the good doctor never fails to tell you to go home, drink lots of fluid and get lots of rest and sleep. Alcohol, caffeine and exposure to bright lights hours before you sleep can affect the quality of your sleep. Prolonged periods of poor sleep can become a sleep problem.

Some folks can sleep by 8.30 to 9pm every night but how many could afford that? Even if you can afford that, would you not be living very boring lives? There are also those who do so by 10.30 to 11pm and still get plenty when they awake by 6.30am and then there are those who do not sleep till midnight and surely some who do not hit the sack till 2-3am in the morning.

There are also some who are awake while we sleep and sleep when we awake. This is the Dracula lifestyle of vampires and those who completely lack sleep are like walking zombies. You see so many of them in the trains and on the streets each morning. I exclude those working on the graveyard shift. Might as well be for if everyone were to sleep at the same time, there will be a roaring noise from synchronised snoring so loud that whatever animals we have left here will run away.

















Some of us do not have a choice due to economic necessities or the heavy responsibilities heaped upon us. Yet others worked till late because it is a habit. Still are we able to moderate? Some of us are distracted by electronic games like X-Box, PlayStation, face book or online games and in the course of doing so we deny ourselves much needed sleep and unconsciously we become vampires and zombies. So when I went to Daiso I found these sticks that can be handy when use to protect myself from vampires and zombies and save the world - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5COGQdooHo (Twilight).











Playing too much of these games can get you thinking that you can hunt down zombies and vampires without realizing that you have already become one since you have been bitten. You find yourself like in "Twilight" but in that movie the most evil is not the vampire and werewolf they become the good guys. It is Bella that is evil but in a way most powerful as she can make vampires fight with werewolves but when I see New Moon I think abalone! http://youtube.com/watch?v=0lnWFphVKhY (New Moon).


















Catching 40 Winks


How often do we think how we wish we can get some sleep. That includes you. We really need to catch the forty winks. Catching 40 winks is like having a short sleep or nap like 40 minutes of it. Inevitably, when presented with such an opportunity, you would somehow end up doing something else like you pick up a book lying there collecting dust for sometime, switch on the television, a friend calls or do a little housekeeping and there goes your sleep you have been craving for. I love this song from "Eels - I Need Some Sleep" which you will enjoy too: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWG1tfu2W1k


Sleep Over Your Blues

Sometimes, we may even have a headache, lack concentration, feels dog-tired, irritable or we find that problems seem so big and troublesome. We go to bed troubled and worried as we begin to think of tomorrow's work and problems and they all seems so insurmountable that our sleep becomes disturbed not realizing that 99.9% of the worries we had never happened and losing sleep over anything does nothing to make things better and in fact make them worse as you shall awake feeling like the living dead. 


Very often, the best and only thing to do when you have problems is to go to bed and have a good night's sleep. When you wake up in the morning, the problems you worry about may not occur, if they are still there, at least you got a good night's rest and sleep and would be in a better position to deal with them. Sleep over your problems! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oHShap1jM0 (MCR).


Sleep Is A Weapon


Sleep is a weapon. I have mentioned this before. It is something when deprived of you can't be at your optimum. You could be a walking zombie - like during the recent World Cup season. I would think that many people here and around the world do not have enough sleep due to various reasons like stress or a busy lifestyle. At the opposite end, there are some who sleeps too much. 


Everybody is trying to squeeze too much into 24 hours and there is hardly sufficient time for anything. I have asked some folks who told me that they slept late especially Fridays because it is their way to "de-stress" since the weekend is here while others may feel that sleeping is a waste of time. What about you? Then there are people who always need their "beauty sleep." These are sleeping beauties.


Some of us sleep over our favourite sports like soccer especially the later matches. You sit upright at first to watch. Then you say why not get a bit more comfortable and lean back a little only to slight sideways and finally into a power position and yes fall asleep. Then when the wife or your children switched off the tele and you go: "Hey, I am watching soccer" and you get up to continue actually not knowing what match was going on let alone the score. This is call sports sleep.

Some friends and readers asked me if I bunk in late may be from their impression from reading my blog when I sometimes published them at the wee hours. Well, I do not sleep that early and on some heavy energy sapping days from work, there is a tendency to doze off awaking after a power nap and another cold shower later you would feel fresh. I guess it has to do with aging perhaps and similar to eating where you may be used to three square solid meals a day, you could be probably taking more frequent munches with smaller bites so it may be a similar pattern to your sleep. 


Power naps here and there then the main course. I call this a screen saver energy saving mode where you are like a computer screen dozing off to save energy. With a little shake of the mouse and you are back.

The real danger are people who talk in their sleep. Your wife will know everything if you have secrets. No point hiding. Come on out in the open.

Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtxiZItyYh8PtxiZItyYh8

Then there are those who cannot or do not like to sleep alone.

Paul Anka - I Don't Like To Sleep Alone (Aku Tak Suka Tidor Se Orang)

God is fair. All of us are accorded 24 hours a day. Nothing more, nothing less. The moment you were born, your time clock started and is slipping away. If you spent 8 working hours per day you have 16 hours left (provided you don't work 10-12 hours). Deduct another 8 hours if that's how long you sleep you have a balance of 8 hours to do everything else. 


Everything else includes the time you spent in queues, your hobbies, with loved ones, friends, etc. We are crying for time. Life is ice, it melts. Listen to Kansas' "Dust In The Wind" - "I close my eyes, only for a moment and the moment's gone". "All we are is dust in the wind". Poignant.

When you know that you have always given your best and do the right things without harming others and is at peace with God, you sleep soundly. You may remain awake on some days till 5 or 6 in the morning but the quality of your recovery with all the extra sleep won't be the same. It is just like time. You lose it you won't recover it. That is probably why God make day and night. So sleep like a baby!

By the way, are you a werewolf or vampire? It does not make a difference as both are prowlers of the night. I am going to Daiso to get those sticks! Meantime, we may have been told from young that if you can't sleep, start counting sheep and you will soon doze off. Why don't you put your trust in God and if you think He is the Shepherd leave the counting of sheep to him. He will count you as one of His sheep and you can sleep soundly. Time to sleep. Sweet dreams.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uncle Choo

Image
Preface It has really been awhile since I have last written and published an article on my blog with the last being in October last year. Before that I have been writing and publishing non-stop for 15 years since 2008.  I was not suffering from writer's block. They say running water never grows stale. So I have to move on to other things since the pandemic has ravaged and torn all asunder. No matter how passionate you are about anything, you will find that after an absence for sometime, the engine gets cold and you find it harder to start.  Just too darned busy and being too busy with one thing means one becomes lazy with the others. The law of compensation. A hiatus if you must.  Covid made it worse as there was no more travelling since borders were closed and eating locally and overseas were curtailed. So I could not write about these things. In fact, I laid out my travel luggage, sat down and spoke to them - "We are not gonna travel for a few years". They have since be
Read more

The Kallang Roar! (Part Three)

Image
Back in the good old days, we have four other national teams. Besides the National Team (The Lions), we also have a B team (The Cubs). Then we also competed in the Sultan's Gold Cup fielding a team called Singapore Malays. We have the Singapore Indians playing in the Bardhan Cup and the other being the Singapore Chinese team also competing aga inst Malaysian state teams in the same format and also the Ho Ho Cup triangular among Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. In 1976, Englishman Trevor Hartley became responsible for the Singapore team at age 28. I can't remember which year Singapore beat Malacca 6-2 and Lee Bee Seng was sent off for punching an opponent who must have trampled on him. Here is Bee Seng with Brian Rozario. In the same match Quah Kim Song was sent off too for fighting. And I said wow! Malaysia Cup is like that? I like! (Pix - Lee Bee Seng with Brian Rozario). And can you believe this? Before all these we have Mike Walker who played Kim Song a
Read more

The Hainanese

The Hainanese are people from Hainan who originated from Hainan Island - the smallest province of China at the Southern most tip. They were originally fishermen from Fujian and Guandong and later settled over there. The Hainanese, part of the Chinese dispora migrated to different South East Asian countries including late comers to Singapore worked in ships as sailors, opened their own coffee shops or restaurants, bakeries or bars and worked as cooks and chefs and others at local hotels.  Hainanese in Singapore made up 7% of the Chinese population. The Hainanese came to Singapore much later than the Hokkiens and Teochews who are already well entrenched in trade and commerce. Originally they also have problems communicating with other dialect groups as their language seems unintelligible to the others but they began to carve out a name for themselves working for wealthy Europeans including as canteen operators for military bases.  Hainanese are especially with food and beverage.
Read more