Sleeping as a hobby?

"We Thais have our own favourite cure for emotional exhaustion. No pills, no alcohol, no dope, no therapy - we simply hit the sack. Sounds simple, but it works. In fact, in survey after survey we have admitted that sleep is our favourite hobby. (We know there's something better on the other side.)", I recently read in John Burdett's Bangkok Tattoo.

It is not the first time that I've come across this Thai notion of sleeping as a hobby and I still keep on wondering. I mean, doesn't a hobby imply some kind of real action? In other words, some doing?

Or, could it be that this is just another demonstration of how creatively some Thais use language? A guy comes to mind who, instead of saying that he needed to go to the loo (pai hong nam - literally: go room water), grinningly stated: go Waterloo.