A Good Night's Sleep

My first night camping in the Highlands was cold but it was quiet.  I haven't felt real quiet for a long time.  When you live in the centre of a city, you never do.  There's a neverending hum, and that's only the backing track for the of bin vans, sirens, drunken arguments, throbbing bass, bastard pianos beneath the floorboards.  It becomes a kind of sonic skin; close as can be, inescapable.

The cold night means the day was clear, which out of the city means stars.  Hundreds of millions of stars.  I felt like I could see every star in the universe.  Then I remembered we can't see most of the universe.  Then I remembered that in the city at night, you can't see any of the universe.  The sky is only ever sort of dark, and you never see a star.

Bed time.

I fell asleep in my tent at Admair Point with quiet in my ears.  It was a joy.

Are you getting enough sleep?  Almost certainly not:

http://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/The-effects-of-sleep-deprivation/
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/tiredness-and-fatigue/Pages/lack-of-sleep-health-risks.aspx
https://www.leeds.ac.uk/news/article/3809/public_sector_workers_sleep-deprived_says_study
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/staff-should-start-work-at-10am-to-avoid-torture-of-sleep-depriv/
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/apr/01/chronic-sleep-deprivation-uk-staff

It's not just work that's doing it to us, though.  We're doing it to ourselves:

https://sleepfoundation.org/ask-the-expert/electronics-the-bedroom
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749597814000089
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/another-compelling-argument-for-starting-school-later_us_56007a5ae4b00310edf84172
http://mentalfloss.com/uk/health/33175/working-9-to-5-is-torture-says-sleep-expert

We're doing it to our kids.  We are killing ourselves with our conventions.  Let's stop doing that.  Think of a world where we all went to bed when it got dark and got up again when the sun did.  I'd like to live in such a world.  Would you?  Let's rage against the 9 to 5.  Good night.





Related posts

What is a meal? (And other difficult questions)
Deep Breaths and How to Take Them
On staring out the window

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