Young“Owls”

by seriena chan man teng

When other people are sleeping, you are full of energy in doing other things.

When you are having a sweet dream, other people are working for their lives.

According to the Macao Youth Index 2008 Survey published in 2009, people aged between 21 and 29 have an average sleep time of 6 hours and 54 minutes per day, which is below the normal 8 hours. And those interviewed spend most of their time on the online activity which accounts for 52% of leisure time. The next activity is watching TV (45%), followed by going shopping (41%).

Kim Ip, a year 3 student of civil engineering in the University of Macau, works as a part-time waiter in L’Arc Macao. He is used to the night life—going online, studying at night and always going to sleep at 3 a.m. “I sleep late because most of my friends just appear to be free at night only,” Ip said. Because of staying up late, it is difficult for Ip to wake up early in the morning. He said he was often absent from school last semester, and he realized that this kind of habit is not good since it makes him pay less attention to study. “It is very strange that I am full of energy at home but feel tired in study or work,” he said. “I always do not feel well during the daytime.”

Mani Lam, a Chinese medicine doctor, claimed that people who always sleep late will feel dizzy and have a headache. They may even suffer from bad moods and loss of appetite. It may also cause damage to the liver if people continue to have this bad habit, she said.

Cindy Ho, a club representative working in Wynn casino. She is almost never able to get up in the morning—except when she works the morning shift. As the job requires, she needs to work on shifts. Whenever she doesn’t need to work at night, she still cannot get to sleep early due to this life habit. She always chats with friends online or over the phone, while sometime sings karaoke with friends or plays cyber games when she is free at night time.

“I think this life habit is both good and bad,” Ho said. “It brings a little color to my boring life, but makes my daily schedule messy…. No one is willing to have on-shift jobs if they have any other choice,” she added.

Macao’s economy is built on the gambling industry with casinos all around. Most of the post-80s have on-shift jobs in casinos or related industries. People’s daily schedule has changed unconsciously. Day and night are no longer the same for those post-80s.