Can't Sleep?

Then whatever you do don’t drink Bintang before bed. An informal and entirely non rigourous study conducted by yours truly concluded that drinking Bintang beer, Indonesia’s national brew, will keep you awake.

I often wondered why during my first trip to Bali in 1998 I didn’t sleep for the entire three weeks. Well I drank an awful lot of Bintang during that trip. In subsequent visits, I never slept well, which I attributed it to the island’s intense energy. Then after I moved here, I didn’t sleep well for months and months. I had a lot of reasons not to sleep well. I was getting used to living and sleeping alone in a new place, the second Bali bombings occurred followed by a tough break up with my ex-boyfriend. During this period I drank Bintang. Not every night but from time to time with dinner or at a club. I began to realize that whenever I drank it I felt that awful “there’s no way I’m going to sleep tonight” buzzing. Could Bintang be one of the sources of my insommia, I wondered? Soon thereafter someone told me about all the preservatives in Bintang and I pretty much stopped drinking it. When I do want a beer, I will order a SandStorm, an all-natural lager manufactured locally by the expat-owned Bali Storm Brewing Company.

So I’ve been sleeping pretty well over the past few months. Since my father died and I sorted out my housemate situation, I seemed to have achieved semi-normal sleeping pattern and have even begun dreaming again.

Then this week I decided to test my Bintang theory. I drank just 1/2 a bottle of Bintang besar when I was out with friends in Sanur on Monday night. As soon as I got into bed and turned out the lights, I felt that sensation again. That insomniac buzzing that meant I would not fall asleep until maybe 4am if I was lucky. And that’s just what happened. There it was, the not-so-scientific proof that I sought.

So no more Bintang for me. Since I have a case of Bintang besar left after my last party, I guess I’ll have to rely on my roommates to drink it!