Do You Hear What I Hear?, or, A Good Night’s Sleep Is Highly Overrated

I am not a morning person.  I think my natural cycle is roughly waking from 10AM until 2AM, and sleeping from 2AM ‘til 10.  This has been one of the toughest physical adjustments with which I have been confronted and am still struggling.  I used to be an extremely sound sleeper and would sleep through almost anything.  But as I’ve gotten older, even though my hearing has gotten worse, I nonetheless seem to have simultaneously gotten more sensitive to sound, so that now the slightest creaking of the floor from the apartment above me usually wakes me up. 

Suffice it to say that the noises from the neighborhood are way louder than the creaking of floorboards.  It starts at around 4:30 with a bird whose call is kind of like a whiporwill only much more annoying.  As it continues, it becomes increasingly loud and frantic until you think either it’s going to commit suicide or you’re going to murder it.  At 5, the neighborhood roosters join in, and there are a lot of them, like everyone got one when they moved in.  At 5:30, my host mother gets up and starts cooking.  This is also when the monks next door start chanting and sometimes when music from the public PA system cranks up.

At this point, how long have I been awake?  (See above with regard to my having become a very light sleeper.)  That’s right!  Since 4:30.  (For those of you who know me well, at this point you should probably close your mouths, which have no doubt fall open in disbelief.)  I actually get up around 5:45 or 6 at the latest, thinking that there is absolutely nothing to the saying about “early to bed, early to rise…”  I doubt very much that the sleep deprivation is contributing anything to my health, wealth, or wisdom. 

Did I mention that I am not a morning person?

On the upside, you can get a lot done when you get up that early.  By the time I’ve left for school at 7:15, I’ve showered, eaten breakfast, helped sweep the leaves from the yard, practiced Tai Chi, given food to the monks, and studied a little Thai.

Thank goodness I discovered that my host mother drinks coffee, and also where I can procure hot and iced coffee at almost any time of day (and without a Starbucks anywhere in sight).