My theme of weariness

[Source: FreakingNews.Com]

Being weary has become an unfortunate theme in my life. So regular is this motif that one would think me ill, but thankfully ill health is not the cause of my fatigue. Rather, my weariness is often the cause for becoming sick. The problem is actually very simple – I do not sleep enough. It is not that I cannot sleep; it is merely a case of my biorhythm being out of sync with most of society. I am undeniably the proverbial night owl.

A perfect routine for me would be to wake up around 9am and start work around 11am. This, of course, is not the common practice of regular society which likes to start their day at least two hours prior my own preference. And what a difference such two hours make! There was a time I used to teach businesspeople; hence, my working hours were very early in the morning (before they went to work) and in the evening (after they came back from work). One student who on one occasion attended both the early morning and late evening sessions told me that my evening classes were much better and that I looked noticeably less tired at night than I do in the morning. My X used to complain about my burst of energy at 10pm, just around the time when she was ready to sleep.

At present I start working at 8:30 or 9am and so get up around 7:30am. I usually go to bed after midnight, so I get around seven hours of sleep which is not bad; however, I function best on nine hours of sleep. These days I feel it necessary to take a siesta of about thirty or so minutes in the late afternoon. Sleeping during the day has always been a taboo for me, mostly because of my father who could not tolerate daytime lethargy and engrained in me his reproaches – Why are you sleeping? You have no guts! What bowl organs and sleeping have in common I have no idea, but to this day I feel terribly guilty if I sleep in the afternoon. Nonetheless, my body – which has little concern over childhood indoctrination –has begun to plead for more sleep and the late afternoon nap is appreciated.