We, Saudis and even residents, are just fond of staying up well into the wee hours of the morning. This is a fact that has characterized our social life. Our big cities are one of few in the world that is alive with activity till the early hours of the morning. The traffic is just the same, with no part of the night seeing very light traffic. Our shops close late. Our restaurants serve food until late into the night. While, some restaurants remain open throughout the night. Is this a natural situation? Does it impact the level of the individual's productivity? Does it have any hand in our social problems? The answer is yes. No doubt this is not a natural situation from the aspects of security, economy and social life. It also adversely affects productivity of the individual, whose nocturnal life leaves him with very little hours of sleep. He will make up the lost hours of his night sleep by borrowing time from day hours. Even our children are not exempt from these late hours activities. They have inherited these nocturnal habits from the genes of the their fathers and mothers. Now the alarm informing us that it is time to go to bed is the midnight TV news bulletins. Earlier, the cut off time was the nine o'clock news bulletins that were sacrosanct and the children stuck to this deadline religiously. It is high time that we go back to this good habit. Let us rekindle the habit of going to bed early. Put off all the light of the city's streets by 10 p.m. Do not allow any activity, which is not very necessary, to continue until late into the night. By taking this action, we will reduce the city's noise pollution, cut the number of cars on the road and lessen traffic and in the process the number of accidents while also saving energy. We will also ensure that our people will wake up in the morning active and less tense.
