“It’s not even being asleep, but it’s sort of closing your eyes.”
It’s safe to say that well-known Kerry TD Michael Healy-Rae is a busy man.
Whether it’s serving the needs of his constituents at home in the south-west or raising issues – not without controversy – in Dáil Éireann, he’s a man rarely out of the public eye.
To do his job the way Healy-Rae does it must require a great deal of energy, energy which the man himself says is boosted by an unconventional habit which sees him catch up on sleep he misses out on at night in short bursts the following day.
Healy-Rae was our guest on Ireland Unfiltered this week and chatted to Dion Fanning about a sleeping habit that is irregular to say the least.
Here’s how the conversation went down:
Dion: How many hours sleep do you get a night?
Michael: Not a lot, not a lot.
Dion: It’s funny now, before we started this interview, I thought you seemed tired and the minute it started, I couldn’t see any trace of tiredness at all…
Michael: To be honest, I think before it started I fell asleep for a minute and sometimes, this is very funny, I can fall asleep for a couple of minutes and when I’d open my eyes, I wouldn’t know was it after being two minutes or was it after being 20 minutes or it could have been half an hour.
So actually, I was worried when I opened my eyes because I was thinking, ‘Oh sugar, how long am I after keeping my eyes closed for?’ But no, I can do that and I’d feel great after it actually.
It’s like resting your eyes, it’s not even being asleep but it’s sort of closing your eyes.
Dion: And that’s all you need? That gives you a boost?
Michael: Yes.
Dion: So you can get by on that through a day?
Michael: Yes.
Michael also spoke to Dion about his belief that aeroplanes, and not farmers, are to blame for climate change, which you can read about in more detail here.
You can watch the interview in full below.
Ireland Unfiltered, brought to you in partnership with Carlsberg Unfiltered, will be available everywhere you get your podcasts and on YouTube every Tuesday.
