I can't tell if this is serious news or not. It isn't dated April 1.
http://www.thanhniennews.com/features/?catid=10&newsid=12673
Vietnam man handles three decades without sleep
As songbirds awaken the early risers at dawn on the farm, one
resident is already up; in fact, he never slept – not once in the
past 33 years.
You’d think going without sleep for that long may have its drawbacks,
but not for the man in central Quang Nam province who has never been
ill after decades of insomnia.
His inability to sleep has not only made him famous, but also
represents a “miraculous” phenomenon worthy of scientific study.
Sixty-four-year-old Thai Ngoc, known as Hai Ngoc, said he could not
sleep at night after getting a fever in 1973, and has counted
infinite numbers of sheep during more than 11,700 consecutive
sleepless nights.
“I don’t know whether the insomnia has impacted my health or not. But
I’m still healthy and can farm normally like others,” Ngoc said.
Proving his health, the elderly resident of Que Trung commune, Que
Son district said he can carry two 50kg bags of fertilizer down 4km
of road to return home every day.
His wife said, “My husband used to sleep well, but these days, even
liquor cannot put him down.”
She said when Ngoc went to Da Nang for a medical examination, doctors
gave him a clean bill of health, except a minor decline in liver
function.
Ngoc currently lives on his 5ha farm at the foot of a mountain busy
with farming and taking care of pigs and chickens all day. His six
children live at their house in Que Trung.
“I have tried sleeping pills and Vietnamese traditional medicine but
nothing helps, even to sleep for a few minutes,” he said.
Creature of the night
Ngoc often does extra farm work or guards his farm at night to
prevent theft, saying he used three months of sleepless nights to dig
two large ponds to raise fish.
Neighbor Vu said Ngoc volunteered to help beat a drum during the
night and guard the house for the relatives of the dead during
funeral ceremonies so that they could take a nap.
Vu also said when the commune was planting sugar cane, several people
also asked Ngoc to awaken them at midnight to go to work, since he
was up anyway.
On Ngoc’s prolonged insomnia, Phan Ngoc Ha, director of the Hoa Khanh
Mental Hospital in Danang said sleep disorders often cause anorexia,
lethargy, and irritability.
But, in special cases, some people can handle it and still live and
work normally, although this was a very small ratio among insomniacs,
Ha added.
Reported by Vu Phuong Thao – Translated by Thu Thuy
--
Kiran Jonnalagadda
http://jace.seacrow.com/
