Mexico’s More Humane Daily Schedule
Updated December, 2021
An American Horror Story
The dawn breaks outside an apartment in downtown Denver, Colorado. A woman sits up in bed, luxuriously stretches and lands out of bed, ready to seize the day.
This woman, this normal person is not me. I’m rather this creature.
A cell phone alarm goes off. It swipes at it blindly, knocking the glass of water over on the bedside table. Still flailing, it sweeps the phone off the table, which falls into pieces when it hits the floor. Moaning, it rises, takes one last blank look at the bed continues its march toward the light, doing the stiff-legged somnolent shuffle that all zombies do until it finally reaches a coffee maker. Not quite agile enough to center the pot, water hisses ominously on the heating element.
Ignoring the sound, it turns and lurches toward the bathroom, almost misses the toilet seat, and with the dexterity characteristic of the living dead, unwinds half a roll of toilet paper on to the floor. Grasping the towel rod, it launches itself into the shower in a last feeble attempt to save itself.
2:00 a.m. in Mexico
The inhuman American work day schedule
Judging by all the articles I see, many of us talk about having “a sleep problem."
What we really have is a work problem. The US work schedule is completely unnatural. No happy, sleeping country keeps our unhealthy schedule: Dawns that like being torn from the womb, the catatonic post-lunch stupor, the going to bed when you just beginning to relax.
But happier days may be ahead of you. One of the things about Mexico that I didn't anticipate and has been one of its best features has been its schedule.
One year as a part time expat, I had the bad luck of construction going across the street at both my place in Mexico and in front of my apartment building in Denver. The noise from construction workers in Mexico didn’t start until the humane hour of 9:00 a.m. as opposed to ludicrous 7:00 a.m. when construction sites kick off in Denver.
Week-end evening get togethers start later and go later in Mexico. Even in my age crowd, friends show up to go out after 9:00. My friends in Denver panic if they are not tucked in by 10:00, even on weekends regardless of how much they’re enjoying themselves.
They don’t want to throw their sleep patterns off for the work week ahead, an inclination that strikes me as both logical and perverse. In Mexico, I have never been home from any evening with friends earlier than midnight.
I am convinced that individual are wired a certain way. If your wiring doesn’t happen to match society’s grid, you spend most of your life trying to mash yourself into an acceptable sleep schedule for the convenience of others. I, and maybe you, are far from alone. Studies have recently determined that insomnia, as I suspected, can be hereditary. They have found its precise location on DNA strands). Many celebrities themselves have bizarre sleep patterns.
There’s also the social censor in the US. I stopped telling people what time I woke up. They would say, “Must be nice to sleep in!” regardless of the number of hours I work. To conform, some friends of mine smoke pot. Some take Ambien. One person I know, if she can’t sleep by 2:00 a.m., goes downstairs and throws back two shots of vodka. The situation can get desperate.In Mexico, one can feel comfortable rising later, taking a few hours break at lunch, and working late, without feeling like a slacker.
As a night owl, this difference of two hours between what I have to live with in the US and Mexico's more organic time schedule makes all the difference in my productivity groove plus I sleep better.
Is the "normal" schedule even natural?
Our forebears, before the invention of artificial light, woke up in the gloaming hours to meditate and pray and then returned to bed. From what I have seen of Shakespeare, they wrote many soliloquies at all hours of the pre-dawn, so those hours would appear to have potential for productivity.
I would still love to be one of those people on the right clock, the respectable clock, bouncing out of bed at 7:00 without looking back. I have tried everything. None of these measures beats letting my body go to sleep when it wants to. All that struggle to conform ends every time I come back to Mexico.
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About the author, Kerry Baker
I'm a partner with Ventanas Mexico which provides insight and resources to those considering expat life in Mexico, including the book "If Only I Had a Place on renting luxuriously for less.
My second book is “The Mexico Solution: Saving your money, sanity, and quality of life through part-time life in Mexico.” It’s a game plan on how to set up your new mini life in an entertaining narrative.
“The Lazy Expat: Healthy Recipes That Translate in Mexico” is a cookbook for travelers, snowbirds and residents who wish to maintain a healthy diet in Mexico (clue: You must cook.)