Did you get enough sleep? In fact, this is the question we should ask each other when we meet instead of the usual and faceless “how are you?”.
There are days when you don’t feel like doing anything. Like today: I want to stay under the covers, dream slowly, then read a few pages of a book — and fall asleep again. I would like to come up with a machine that would stop time, and not a single alarm clock would ring. That’s what I felt again this morning.
Yes! What you are reading now was written by a man who did not want to get out of bed. Can you feel how my eyes close? And the bed in front of me is like an abandoned beloved, crying out: “Come back! Come back!» But I don’t give in. I, the columnist knight, remain here, faithful to our alliance with you, reader. It’s a pity that Tuesdays and Thursdays cannot be converted into Sundays. Well, really — why is it so hard to get up? It sometimes seems to me that some people have children just to have an excuse to open their eyes. I often feel more tired when I wake up than when I go to bed. Do you know this feeling?
Every day I come back from a dream like from a very long plane flight, with three transfers and a twelve-hour time zone change. We — all those who are unable to get out of bed in the morning — should unite and arrange a putsch that will overthrow the dictatorship of the morning. I am sure that together we can achieve the right to get up later. The question of sleep is one of the main injustices in relation to man. Are you aware of the incredible difference between those who need six hours of sleep and those who need ten? Indeed, on the scale of life, this is many years … How many books I could write if I slept less!
In addition, all people sleep differently. Some fall asleep instantly, while others still need to count the sheep. Some see dreams, while others have a resting brain. Some need silence and darkness, while others can sleep on a crowded bus. I belong to that group of people who count sheep in complete darkness and are forced to get ready for bed as if they were going on a campaign to conquer unknown lands.
And in the end, all this does not help, because some wake up fresh and rested, while others still need to drink a couple of liters of coffee first. Those who wake up in good shape just amaze me. These are some kind of aliens. What an injustice! And why are we so tolerant of each other in the matter of sleep? The fight against inequality has been going on for centuries, and only these fundamentally important differences are left without attention.
We are what our dream is. Our mood is in constant, more or less obvious dependence on how we slept. There are mornings when I am ready to kill the first neighbor that comes across; and there are those when I am ready to marry a saleswoman from a bakery. The first thing we should ask each other is not “how are you?”, But “did you sleep well?”. Because this is the root cause of everything: our nights set the tone for our days.