Getting up early vs. staying up late
Meng Haoran, an ancient Chinese poet, wrote in one of his poems his happy feeling when wakened by the chirping of birds in a spring morning. It seems that he did not get up early and waked “naturally” after a sound sleep. What kind of timetable a person should follow depends on the character and habit of him and even on the job he does. I think it is important to arrange our life in such a way as to ensure high efficiency of our work and good to our health. Some people prefer to work until late at night because they feel that they can concentrate their mind in a quiet environment when others are in sleep.
For instance, many writers like to write at night. It is said that a famous French writer who lived in a small house on a hill at seaside was accustomed to working so late at night that the lamplight from the window was perceived by the sea crewmen as a signal leading their ships into the harbor. In China, people are encouraged to follow a regular living habit, which requires early sleep and early rise. For a long time in the past, China has been a traditional agricultural society, in which people lived a life that progressed slowly with the change of time.
As an old Chinese saying goes, “a man should get up early so as to clean the house to prepare for the day’s work.” Even today, we can see many old people do exercise early in the morning in parks or open areas of cities. However, with the rapid social and economical development, people are now forced to some extend to abandon such a living style based on the progress of the time.
Nowadays, we are living in a fast changing society, sometimes we have to following a rhythm or timetable according to the need of our work instead of our own will. But however we arrange our life, we should try to take into account of our own conditions in order to do our work well.
