The Days Spent Fighting Against Time

Is having time for myself something that I can have only in my dreams? The only reason I don’t have more free time is because I only have 24 hours a day. If I had 30 hours a day, hmmm, maybe I could catch up somehow. Oops... This is another complaint in a daydream. I already know that I always lack time for myself because of my own self-discipline.

The greatest enemy in the fight against time is aging, and I’m only getting older. It is hard when the body can no longer do what my brain commands it to do. For example, I am keenly aware of the fact that I am now often tempted to fall asleep for no reason. Up until a few years ago, I used to work until after midnight while drinking beer or wine. I was able to work well even over an entire bottle of wine. Now, however, just a little bit of alcohol is enough to put me into a deep sleep after 10 p.m. This alone takes away several hours from my work time every day. Whether I drink or not, it seems I still become sleepy.

Then, the standard solution is to go to bed early, get up early, and work early in the morning. However, I have always gotten up at 5:00 every morning, so I feel like my day starts at the same time in the morning as I used to. Then, I would say, going to bed early means more sleep, more rest, and more energy for the daytime! However, it turns out that aging has an effect on sleep, too. Sleep becomes lighter with age, so even if I sleep for 5-6 hours, I feel like I slept for a mere 4 hours. In other words, I physically experience no difference from when I stayed up late and only slept for a few hours.

In order to improve shallow sleep, a supplement called melatonin has become mainstream in Western culture. This hormone is recommended by many doctors as a supplement to improve sleep quality and it is very inexpensive in western countries, but it has not been approved yet in Japan for some reason. One theory is that pharmaceutical companies have lobbied against the approval of melatonin because various sleep disorders will be curable if many people regularly take melatonin. I have been taking melatonin for a while because I lived in the States for many years. Because of this, I have no way to even know if my sleep quality has improved, but I have a feeling that it will probably be worse if I stop taking melatonin.

After all, the best things we can do in our daily lives are to eat delicious healthy food and to sleep well at night. I think everyone will agree that this is the secret to happiness. However, as a person who wears three hats, I always feel pressured by time and have to keep moving every minute. This is my fate. I have limited time to eat, so I have breakfast at a stand-up soba shop. Squid tempura soba noodles and crown daisy soba noodles are so good. For lunch, I have kitsune udon at Marugame Udon. I only have 10 minutes for both breakfast and lunch! I have so much to do, so I quickly get ready for the next activity, and continue working until my brain feels foggy every night. I often fall asleep sitting in my chair at 2 a.m. There is no way I can live too long if I continue to spend my days like this. I know that if I don’t try to focus on taking care of myself now, I will have no future. Well, what can I do?