Made in Macao | Addicted to sleep or staying up late?

Jenny Lao-Phillips

These days, I seem to hear more young people saying that their hobby is sleeping. For some, sleeping is not just a hobby, but a ‘talent’. Could it be that some of them have mixed up ‘hobby’ and ‘talent’?

But my doubts were often quickly cleared when they went on to explain how they can sleep for 14 hours straight on weekends, or that they can sleep standing in the bus. I can’t say if that constitutes a talent, but it seems pretty amazing.

So when a colleague of mine mentioned something about a World Sleep Day, I was at once reminded of those talented “sleepers”. That started some discussions about sleep deprivation and sleeping disorders, which got me interested in exploring the topic of “sleep” – or the lack of it – among students and young professionals these days.

Last Friday, March 17, was World Sleep Day, which is an annual event to celebrate sleep. Of course, it was not a call for everyone to sleep all day, though that would be quite the celebration. The idea of having a World Sleep Day was to remind people of the importance of sleep and to show the extent to which people are sleep-deprived nowadays.

A quick informal survey on people’s sleeping habits showed that the majority of young people I interviewed sleep only around five to six hours per night. Binge-sleeping on weekends seem to be a luxury that happens only once in a blue moon. Most young people go to sleep only around 2 a.m., waking up between 7 and 8 in the morning. These are just figures, but what do they tell us?

When inquiring about the reasons, I was ready to hear excuses such as work, reports, homework or an honest reply such as binge-watching TV or playing computer games. But the most common answer I received was “I don’t want to sleep!” Some of my interviewees even think that sleeping is a waste of time. Now that seems a bit of a contradiction. Are young people divided into two groups, with one side not wanting to sleep, and the other considering sleep as their hobby?

Perhaps the two sides are a cause and an effect: because these people are sleep-deprived during the week, they can sleep standing or straight for 14 hours during weekends. The funny thing is that most of them claim they go to bed early on weekends. So why not go to bed early on weekdays when they have to work early in the morning?

It seems that the people who stay up late are those who work more than 10 hours a day. Although they are usually exhausted at the end of the day and are conscious that they need to sleep, something more powerful stops them – the enjoyment of some me-time. To most, midnight is the time they can read, watch TV, play video games or jigsaw puzzles, or even enjoy a solo game of chess. So why would they give up such enjoyment for a few more hours of shut-
eye?

Another reason for staying up late comes from the fear that once we shut our eyes, time flies. The moment we open them again, it is time for work. And so the cycle begins again. All day long, we crave sleep, dragging our tired body through another day. Then when the time comes for sleep, we cling to our non-working hours and enjoy them as long as we can. So perhaps it is the addiction to staying up late that makes sleep disorders so common.