If our traits truly reflect our Chinese zodiac sign, my spirit animal must be a rooster. If you must know, it is a pain to be a cock. Sometimes, I wish I can sleep like a pig like my wife. It must be great being able to sleep through an earthquake rather than being awaken by a slight sound. Unfortunately, little Ant took my light-sleeping traits, which has been creating all sorts of problems for us. From the looks of it, he seems to take after my tendency to wake at the first light.
Like I said, it sucks to be a cock. Unless I am dead tired, I wake almost immediately if an idiot decided to draw the curtain even if I only slept for 3 hours. I struggle with this particularly when I was living in Singapore. As we did not have an air con in the earlier years, and was warned not to use it by our dad anyway, we have to sleep with open windows or risk waking up smelling like a smoked chicken - or not awakening at all. Night breeze is a rare commodity in Singapore. So drawing curtains or blinds to shield lights practically reduced ventilation to a minimum level, which causes bad sleep. It is common for Singaporeans to have the bad sleeping habit of turning in very late, often way beyond midnight. However unlike people like me, most of those I know do not have problem sleeping way beyond sunrise. That is why I look like a cock too, with dark rings around the eyes. Sucks to be me.
Fortunately, Perth nights are usually very cooling. It usually go below 20 degrees Celsius even on many Summer nights. Bad nights during Summer are still within the lower 20s. It is possible to cover up the windows for 3/4 of the year where it was comfortably cold to sleep. Summer will be trickier for cocksters.
For your information, the earliest sunrise this Summer is from 30th Nov to 8 December 2016 @ fucking 0503hrs! That means the first light can be as early as 0430hrs. This Summer has been very forgiving one this year in terms of temperature. We hardly have very hot days and the nights are mostly cool and comfortable. However, the early sunrise continues to pose a challenge to me.
The latest sunrise this year will be during Winter from 24th June - 8th July 2017 @ 0717 hrs. That means the sun will not have risen yet when I start work during Winter. This 2 hours difference is really noticeable. To me, it makes life more interesting here compared to living in a place with the same conditions day in, day out.
"it sucks to be a cock"
ReplyDeleteNot when you're the cock being sucked.
"Unfortunately, little Ant took my light-sleeping traits, which has been creating all sorts of problems for us. From the looks of it, he seems to take after my tendency to wake at the first light."
ReplyDelete^ While not having kids of my own I think this is caused by parenting style rather than human nature. I can only draw from my own personal history as well as observations. I think those parents who fuss about not making any sort of sound whatsoever when they are trying to put their baby to sleep or while their baby is sleeping is doing a great disservice to their baby as well as everyone who comes into contact with their child in the future. You should train your child to sleep through light and sound. When you put your baby to sleep you should continue with your normal routine and not change anything, put on the dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, leave the TV on and not turn it down, leave the radio on and don't lower the volume, talk at normal volumes rather than whispering, etc. At first I am sure your baby will have trouble falling asleep or will wake up but given enough time your baby should learn how to sleep through all this, to sleep when tired.
From my own history I remember being in kindergarten / year 1 and my parents putting me to sleep while the sun was still shining and I would protest saying it was too early to sleep as the sun was still shining. My window would face the setting sun and so I learnt how to fall asleep "with the light on" so to speak. Unfortunately learning how to sleep with the light on also meant I could not sleep unless the light was on so even up until year 7 I used to sleep with the hallway light on. While I was in year 8 I finally learnt how to sleep in the dark.
"It must be great being able to sleep through an earthquake rather than being awaken by a slight sound.
Unless I am dead tired, I wake almost immediately if an idiot decided to draw the curtain even if I only slept for 3 hours."
^ You poor bastard. It is fantastic to sleep through earthquakes, noises, fireworks, and even lights. I can fall asleep in a car, bus, train, and a plane day or night. I can also fall asleep in front of the TV with it still on. I have no difficulties in sleeping in either except for in Summer when my room which is on the second story and faces the sun heats up pretty quickly. May I suggest the following re-conditioning technique for you to try in your quest for a better night sleep:
* Have some milk before going to sleep
* Find a small desk lamp and set it up outside of your room. Make sure it doesn't face directly into your room but rather its light can be seen by being reflected off walls. Be sure to leave it on when you are at your most exhausted(hint after spending some time time with the wife). Slowly move the light closer to your room.