3:38 am
That is what time I woke up this morning. Every morning it is a little different. 2:11 am. 2:29 am. 3:20 am.
It’s not a hopeless deficiency in alarm clock programming ability. It’s that I have an alarm clock that is both unpredictable and beyond my control. It is called “construction in a country with no labour laws or noise regulations”. Yessiree, there are no labour laws in China that I’m aware of. If there are, they are not observed.
It is kind of a shared point of half-amused resignation among expats in China that construction is ubiquitous and therefore unavoidable. You could move into a cave in the sparsely populated Western provinces, and a government building project would suddenly pop up beside you within a week of you moving in.
And there is no such thing as 9 to 5, M-F. These projects go all day, all night, 7 days a week. There are times when it is inexplicably quiet. You might go to bed one night thinking, “Yes! They are taking the night off!” only to be awoken at say, 3:38 am by the crash of metal on metal and the tumbling of several tonnes of rubble onto an existing pile of rubble.
And so it was that one of the tiny details that was left out of my employment negotiations with my new university employer was that the staff housing backed onto a massive construction site. Of course, construction is so par for the course, that it likely didn’t even hit the conversation radar. Besides, the demolition/building has been going on for a year, so everyone is used to it, or something like that. In fact, I probably could have said, “I hope that my compensation package includes a construction project conveniently located near my housing… This is a deal breaker, by the way.” And they would have then said, “But of course. All accommodation comes with 24-hour construction noise included.”
There is so much evidence that proper sleep is essential to good health. Even with all this knowledge, we do a poor job of sleeping healthily in the West. It sometimes seems that admitting you sleep well and enough indicates some kind of slothful life. Despite that, we still include proper sleep in the list of things we need to stay healthy. In China, we enter a completely different realm. I’ve never met a local person who sleeps 8 hours straight. They do have a longer lunch time here, and people do nap at that time, but a full night’s sleep – ‘full’ meaning an average 8 hours that is typically required by humans – is non-existent.
This is the companion piece to my earlier post on the gorgeous sunrises I get to behold every single morning. Enjoy the photos((click on one, and you get to scroll through the enlargements) and video below!
We have the same issue (surprise surprise). We just downloaded a white noise app to see if that helps at all…
Ah! Yes, I was thinking about the whole white noise possibility. Please let me know whether that works for you. Are you playing it on a computer or iPhone/mobile phone?
How do you spell Charlotte? S-L-O-T-H! Oh good grief… this post is a going to China deal breaker for me. I almost returned my 1st baby after a week without my 9 straight hours of slumber!!! I am nuts, a monster, unfit to be around without my 9 hours. How are you doing it??? Seriously. I wish you well and tell you what, I will get an extra hour in tonight, just for you!
Haha! Excellent! I must sleep vicariously through others! If I can get enough people doing extra hours for me, then all will be well!
Hmm, me without enough sleep. There are two outcomes. 1) Cranky with a short fuse and low tolerance for anything close to bs, and 2) Nutso, which can be fun for me and either fun or disconcerting for others depending on their approach to life. This version can also be helpful in the classroom…
I think once my honeymoon period at the new job wears off, the sleep problem will become more of an issue. Luckily, I came in mid-way through the semester, so I will get approximately 3 weeks (or more? not sure yet) off in Jan/Feb, and will definitely be leaving the premises for a no-construction zone during that time…
Tara, I dedicate two hours sleep a night to you. Do update the white-noise report!
You are both generous and kind, George
Good lord! Sleep is such an essential ingredient for happy people your post leaves me with two questions: how can the workers be willing to work such long hours, and why don’t people in your building complain?
Great questions. I am not sure I can answer them correctly, but I can at least guess. Regarding the willingness, first, China has a history of human rights abuse, so I’m guessing this is nothing compared to some of the things people have to put up with. I’m also guessing that complaining, especially by low-level people has at times been rewarded by incarceration and more. Further, there is not enough work to go around in China, so they take what they are given and feel lucky that they even have a job at all.
Regarding the complaining, first, I think the construction isn’t part of the university itself (so I’ve been told). Also, as with the above issue, Chinese people won’t complain because they can’t. Possibly they are used to endless construction. I am not sure that they see it as a big deal. The Westerners in the building – I think they know better than to say anything. You learn pretty quickly over here that if you can’t handle the status quo, it is time to go