What Living in Mexico Taught Me About Sleep
Last updated October, 2023
In her memoir Sleepless: A Memoir of Insomnia, by an accomplished novelist, essayist, psychologist and critic Marie Darrieussecq, she declares, “The world is divided into those who can sleep and those who can’t.” The insomniac,” she writes, “is not so much in dialogue with sleep as with the apocalypse.”
Lack of sleep is a public health crisis. According to the CDC, one in three adults in the U.S. do not get enough sleep. On the daily level, lack of sleep causes mental distress. When you are tired, the world is tired. What has happened? Why are we getting less sleep?
Environmental factors such as more exposure to electric light at night, an increased inability to switch off and the glorifcation of doing without sleep in American culture have contributed to this crisis.
Think about when you were a kid. Remember how your parents had to struggle to get you out of bed in the morning? Remember how wonderful it was to be tucked in under the comforter, savoring the languid pleasure until with threat of bodily injury, your mother got you up and to breakfast?
The ongoing campaign to reset our natural body clocks continues through school and into adulthood, grooming us for the frenzied journey ahead. With flagons of coffee clutched in hand, we are deemed ready to enter the hive, in efficient service to the queen (who incidentally, doesn’t work at all).
A brief history of sleep
Before the Industrial Revolution began in the mid-18th century, the average night’s sleep for a person was nine hours. Until that point in history, workers were not the consumers they are today.
In the agrarian and handicraft economies of the past, they worked at a more leisurely pace and took longer breaks. Their output depended more upon the season. Most workers wanted little more than a roof over their head, food, and a good ale, problematic to the needs of bosses in the new age of the internal combustion engine.
So desperate were the captains of industry for a docile, diligent workforce that they embedded the creed of early rising into religion to get things going. It became a moral obligation to rise early (and stay away from the pubs). Sadly, America emulated that English work ethic and schedule instead of the Latin one, the former sorely misaligned with most people’s natural sleep patterns, patterns that children and preteens follow so naturally.
So here we are today - a nation of adults stuck with sleep disorders and the grey veil they throw over our days.
Mexico and sleep
Some countries’ traditions avoided the grind of eight largely unbroken, caffeinated hours. Even today, Mexicans and Latin Americans, as well as most countries in southern Europe maintain a schedule that starts later and gives a good break for the mid-day meal.
Afternoons in Mexico fold into evenings that don’t provoke prematurely ending a fine evening with friends in a panic to be in bed by ten o’clock. As an expat now living in a 2,000 year-old culture as opposed to the practically new 300 year-old country I left behind, I’ve discovered that Mexico has a lesson or two to offer us regarding how to live a saner life.
While they sell Lunesta here too, I’ve never heard a single Mexican friend of mine complain about insomnia or lack of sleep where almost all of my friends in the US do.
Naps and creativity
I have heard people say that naps make them grumpy. I believe that is caused by conditioned guilt. If Winston Churchill could find time in his day for one, so can you. Again, the Mexicans and Spaniards I know consider it a normal part of their day, nothing to add an addendum to or explain with ‘I just do a half hour!”
John Keats, Oscar Wilde and John Lennon were their most creative while in a drowsy netherworld of napping and sleeping-in. Our most creative selves inhabit our subconscious, a world of dreams. René Descartes solved mathematical mysteries from his bed. When Thomas Edison had a puzzle he couldn’t work out, he would take a nap. He often found upon waking that he had the answer to his conundrum.
Your subconscious during sleep works like a man behind a curtain. It makes amazing, unlikely connections in that processing time. Normally, you forget many of them. With a bit of practice however, you can capture and use these connections to make your life more interesting.
By simply keeping a pen and paper on your night stand, you can guide your subconscious toward problem-solving and feeding your creative side. Taking notes during the night or immediately upon waking, and waking up naturally has made all my daily routines more pleasurable without any negative affect on my daily to-do list. I discovered that I plan my days far more pleasurably and creatively lying in bed in the morning than I ever did sitting in front of a computer screen.
Listen to your body.
William Blake who said, “create your own schedule or be enslaved by another’s.” What harm would it do experimenting with yours?
Once when I visited another state for a few months, the difference in time zones meant my regular morning meetings started later. I slept until 10:00 a.m., worked later, and felt better all day without seeing any difference in output. After several years in Mexico, I learned that my past insomnia had more do with the traditional sleep schedule, the one designed for factory workers than bad sleep hygiene.
Get rid of the alarm clock!
Alarm clocks, that heinous invention we actually pay for, have a way of shattering the best sleeping experiences. Once I tossed away that little instrument of torture and took notes upon rising, I began to recover lost dreams and connections.
Some dreams give me warnings (“You forgot to download the attachment!”), others have entertained my boyfriend (His favorite waking comments from me being “Where are my silver Crayons?” and “You can’t shoot a man with an asparagus!” ).
One of the great delights of later stages of life is more freedom in scheduling your days how you desire and according to your own biorhythms. By keeping a sleep journal, waking up naturally, and taking a nap whenever you need it, you likely will feel a sense of greater freedom and enjoyment throughout your entire day.
Related links:
If you are interested in improving your sleep hygiene, Sleepopolis has a helpful resource.
Of course, siestas have a close association with warm afternoons. Learn other ways to deal with the heat in Mexico. [blog]
About the author:
Kerry Baker is the author of three books. Her second book, If I Only Had a Place, is your guide to renting in Mexico (yes, it’s different), all the things realtors will not tell you. Her second book The Mexico Solution: Saving Your Money, Sanity and Quality of Life Through Part Time Life in Mexico, a how-to guide disguised as an entertaining and fun look at Mexican culture.
Most recently she collaborated on a a cookbook, The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico, which is for the traveler/snowbird/expat trying to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico (spoiler: You must cook). The books offers 150 healthy, easy to prepare recipes that can be turn out of any simple kitchen.