Wakin Chau used to rely on sleeping pills to fall asleep, but was too afraid to talk about it

Mandopop singer-songwriter Wakin Chau is well-known for his hits such as ‘Peng You’ and ‘Hua Xin’, but the 59-year-old shared that back in his prime, he was so stressed out about his career that he had problems falling asleep, and had to resort to sleeping pills to get some rest.

He opened up about his past struggles while promoting his new album, The Younger Me, earlier this week. Wakin shared that his lyrics to his song, ‘Sigmund Freud's Sake’, talks about how difficult it was battling insomnia. He revealed that having to release 12 albums in the span of three years took a toll on his mental health, and the stress was so unbearable that he was unable to fall asleep.

Although he did not specify the time period, it’s widely believed that he is referring to the the years 1994 to 1996, when he released Mandarin, Cantonese and English albums.

Wakin continued that although he eventually triumphed in his battle with insomnia, not being able to talk about it made it worse. He mused, “I didn’t dare to talk about it because I was afraid that people would think that I’m just trying to garner pity even though there was nothing wrong with me. Now that I’m of a certain age, I think I’m ready to talk about what happened in my younger days.”

The singer’s latest album has garnered a lot of attention from the public, especially after he did a “father-son spread” with his 29-year-old son, Andrew, who has been dubbed the “Orlando Bloom of Taiwan” to promote his release.

Photos: PBE Media

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