[imagesource:youtube]
I don’t know about you, but when I miss an hour of my precious night’s sleep, I can barely cope the next day.
If I fling my poor self around like the whole world is against me with just 60 minutes less sleep, you can only imagine the kind of tantrums that ensue with any more missed Z’s.
This 81-year-old farmer is a whole other breed of person, though, able to stay awake for a whopping 50 or so years.
Somewhere in the lush green fields of Quang Nam province in Vietnam, Thai Ngoc has become an online sensation after claiming to have lived happily and healthily without sleep since 1973.
DMARGE notes that Ngoc’s lifelong battle with insomnia began after he contracted a mysterious fever in 1973. He spent years seeking medical advice and prescriptions from professionals at the Da Nang Hospital, but his sleeplessness has persisted.
Scientists are absolutely baffled by Ngoc’s medical defiance, who happily spends his days (and nights) tending crops, managing ponds, and raising fish on his farm in the Na Trang Valley.
Despite comfortably carrying 50 kilograms of fertiliser over a 4-kilometre stretch, he claims that he’s never exhausted enough to catch those elusive Z’s. While chronic sleep deprivation typically leads to a wide range of gruelling symptoms for people – including irritability and severely impaired cognitive function – Ngoc has somehow adapted to a life without sleep:
In a conversation with Vietnamnet, Ngoc expressed frustration and envy: “It’s frustrating and exasperating… what a peculiar ailment. Seeing others sleep, I envy them. On moonlit nights, I usually go out to weed and till the soil because sitting still is unbearable. It’s strange that I work twice as much as others, yet my life is still not that prosperous.”
In 2007, YouTuber Drew Binsky spent a night with Ngoc and observed his failed attempts to fall asleep at around 4AM:
A theory for why Ngoc has managed to stay awake all this time suggests the underlying cause could be post-traumatic stress disorder from the Vietnam War, during which he reportedly suffered a hand injury.
According to the Sleep Health Foundation, a lack of sleep can cause major complications.
Sleep conditions like obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) have been closely linked to seemingly unrelated health issues including coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, hypertension, depression, erectile dysfunction, cognitive impairment, and increased mortality risk.
Studies have also found that sleeping less than six or seven hours per night can increase the risk of obesity, type-2 diabetes, and heart disease.
Insufficient sleep also weakens the immune system, increasing the risk of all sorts of illnesses, all the way from day-to-day touches of flu right up to full-blown cancer.
That’s all on top of the impact it has on cognitive function and mental well-being. Disturbances in mood, thinking, concentration, memory, learning, vigilance, and reaction times have all been reported in individuals with sleep problems.
We’re not even going to get into the boredom and loneliness aspect of it…at least Ngoc has the crickets to chirp with?
[source:dmarge]
[imagesource: Instagram/Kris Jenner] The Duchess of Sussex unveiled her jam to the worl...
[imagesource:usagri/flickr] Any article that begins with a headline such as this is bou...
[imagesource:remax] The best place for the end of the world seems to be in the Northern...
[imagesource:here] You know that exercise is good for the body and the mind, but did yo...
[imagesource:pickpic] In what could very well be a 'groundbreaking' judgement, Barlowor...