Myanmar, the land of “anytime-anywhere naps” 😴
Anyone who knows me knows my sleeping issues. I have always struggled with it, for two reasons primarily; first, according to my mam I am hyperactive by nature, and was never the easy-to-put-to-sleep-kind-of-baby, and secondly, as a young kid, I was introduced to computers & games. Naturally, I found sleep to be a total loss of time. Of course this sleep v/s loss of time debate rages on inside me, but not for computer games anymore 😅 That has been translated into many different night owl occupations 🦉 An iota of it is enough for me.
The latter reason is the one most of my friends know and the one people usually guess right. I presume many people think about this life long enigmatic question…unless you take my girlfriend for example, who is a one-of-a-kind sleeper! If there were Olympics for that…she would win and sleep through the medal ceremony! Haha 😂 She’s so gonna kill me for this! 😵But okay, I learned to do that and learned to enjoy it as well. Pandas 🐼 all the way!
Let me explain why I’m writing about this; I have always considered sleep as the last thing on my to-do list but have come to realize how much others value it. I struggle to understand whether this is a condition, a pre-requisite, a necessity, a habit or simply an enjoyable part of life for them. My girlfriend needs it. Deny her and you’re in for some serious trouble. Some require it to function efficiently. Others get sick if they don’t get enough and some simply enjoy that freedom of sleeping 12-15h whenever they can. In Myanmar, I have noticed many people take naps, usually after their lunch, but you will often see a guy asleep in the most awkward place and position; on bicycles, market stalls, motorbikes, on the floor, on a piece of cardboard, in the grass, in the car with feet out the window (one that always cracks me up 😂), or like our friend here, on chair under his repair shop. The goal is never to find a place to sleep. The goal is to sleep. Wherever you are.
The third reason I don’t like to sleep, is that I don’t feel “safe”. Weird I know. But personally, I have a lot of nightmares. Ask anybody who’s slept next to me or in the same room and I bet most of them have a story which goes like; “You jumped so violently! You were sleeping and then you sat upright breathing heavily..what happened? Are you okay?”🙀 I know I’m probably describing the average nightmare reaction, but it’s something that scares me. So yes, I do that. Not knowingly of course, but it’s enough for me. I don’t like it because it’s not nice to me😅
One thing that’s creepy but which I love to do is watch people sleep. The people close to me mostly. I enjoy just sitting and watch my girlfriend sleep, or my sister, or a cousin or a baby. They look so innocent. And that occasional smile that crosses their face in their sleep…the sweetest thing ever!😊The sleep while I doze off. A few minutes feel great. They get a few minutes and wake up grumpy as fuck!😂It’s funny to me. The locals here, I have yet to figure out which is it. I have tried surprising asleep members of my team, some wake up instantly while others looked like they woke up from a half-day sleep marathon. They leave me perplexed. And every time I see a random guy sleeping somewhere, in the most unusual place, I wonder how can he possibly be comfortable there? That cannot be a nap it will take me forever to even feel comfortable enough to let the tiredness get the best of me and nap. Are they sleeping then? Deeply? I wonder…
If my mam reads this…woohoohoo! I know i know…I’ll try to sleep more.
Next week!😂
See ya!
R