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Carrie Lam
Opinion

Carrie Lam needs to sleep more in 2018, for the sake of Hong Kong

Alice Wu says three hours of shut-eye or less, as the chief executive said she gets when the going gets tough, can induce brain fog, impaired judgment and health risks. With fresh challenges awaiting in 2018, being sleep-deprived is not an option

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Chief Executive Carrie Lam talks about her policy address for a Commercial Radio programme, in Kowloon Tong on October 14. Photo: Edward Wong
Alice Wu
For 2018, there is only one resolution for me: sleep more. I’ve been inspired not by Arianna Huffington but by our first female chief executive, Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Lam recently said that she barely gets three hours of shut-eye when life gets tough and five hours on good days.

I believe Lam, not because she seems to be the hardworking type. I believe Lam because her words speak for themselves. Like many of you, I’m befuddled by how Lam can say some of the things she says. Her one-plus-one doesn’t add up to two. You can’t say “I am very careful about my health” and then say you’re on three hours of sleep.

Most of us have experienced the brain fog – incoherence – after pulling that last all-nighter. Brain fog would explain Lam’s curious take on Facebook. She reportedly said: “Facebook is actually very easy to use. It’s not a difficult thing to me.” Eh … yeah. “Easy” is the point and the key to Facebook’s success. But I now wonder if Lam is aware that blue light seriously messes with sleep quality.
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Insisting on sleep deprivation is risky behaviour, hazardous not only to one’s own health but to the safety of others. Sleep deprivation seriously impairs judgment, and our chief executive needs full use of her mental faculties for good judgment. Anything less would be unacceptable and detrimental to the people she has vowed to serve. What Lam has openly claimed is chronic sleep deprivation.

Sleep deprived and under pressure: Carrie Lam discusses coping with life as Hong Kong’s leader

I don’t know how she does it, and that is not meant to be a compliment. Scientists running sleep deprivation tests on rats have found that the brain actually eats itself as a result. We know how prisoners are tortured with sleep deprivation, because it is a highly effective way to break their will.

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