"Sleeping: Kalabit necessities"

"Sleeping: Kalabit necessities"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr. MD

I currently lecture groups of Seafarers during their pre-departure orientation seminars to promote wellness and one of the main points that I stress is to maintain proper sleep to promote a healthy lifestyle.

A solid uninterrupted 8 hour sleeping habit seemed highly feasible but a lot in my class seem to complain that they won't be able to do that.

One man in my first class mentioned that , "kinakalabit kasi ako doc , kaya kailangang gumising." This elicited a really strong laugh from that class since they feel like they can all relate. From this you would have the impression that most of my class were keeping sex starved wives at home!

In my next class I mentioned that if "kinalabit kayo eh magpakipot naman kayo ng kaunti." Where one man in the back then countered that "Eh dok , walang magluluto ng sinangag." More laughter and later from the same man in yellow , "Walang magpaplantsa ng uniform pagpasok doc."  My only response to that was , "Mahirap nga yan. Sige wag na tayong matulog."

The class laughed but I drove the point across later that lack of sleep leads to other unhealthy habits like eating more and being unsatisfied that you end up eating more which is only one more reason to sleep.

Funny that as I mentioned sleep I only had 5 hours of it as of that time. Hooowell at least I can say that I am talking from experience when it comes to lack of sleep and actually dream of a day when I can sleep 8 hours straight. I can sleep when the bills are paid.