When I wake up in the morning and there is absolutely nothing I feel like doing, then there’s just really one thing left to do: go back to sleep.

Just to make sure, this is not about (seasonal) depression or other chemical imbalances in the brain, which especially the women on here might familiar with, no, this is about the harmless but highly annoying version of the world just looking blah. As I’ve designed my life to be as beautiful as possible, I couldn’t help but realize that sometimes things are just really off. And after testing and testing, the verdict has been clear. Missing sleep is the determining factor.

Now, we all know on some level of how important sleep is. Still I bet most of you don’t get enough of it. Which unfortunately is exactly what is encouraged by our productivity-obsessed culture. So, we consider sleep a privilege. We consider abundant sleep as something frivolous, a luxury reserved for weekends or vacation days. And we consider all-the-sleep-in-the-world-I-would-ever-want to be pure gluttony. But I am here to tell you that all of this is just your socialization talking. It’s the TV in the background, the 30 under 30 lists plastered all over the internet, the hard-working parent generation, the exploitative economic systems keeping us hooked through addictive salaries. Sadly, for many of us, too-short-sleep cycles are very much outside of our control as we might be bound to school schedules, inflexible working hours, external deadlines, and the expectations of clients that we are somehow always incapable to push against. Yes, it’s a complicated topic. For us as individuals, but especially for us as an interconnected society.

But it can literally suck the happiness out of the most beautiful experiences in life! Happiness, the thing we are all reaching for. Why we work too hard, why we have children or pets, why we have hobbies, and why we try to be our most authentic selves. All of that effort diminished, just because we are missing half an hour of sleep. Argh. And thus, I want to spur you into rebellion! Sleep as much as you want! Try it out. Give it some time, get your data. And see for yourself. Perhaps it’s not as extreme for you as it is for me, but I sincerely doubt it ;). I’ve gathered my data. Actually, I’ve designed an incredible sensitive experiment of “living life” by having been able to strip it down to its most simple and independent form (while still comfy). Thus, even the smallest differences stick out like sore thumbs. And so, when I wake up in the morning, or I come home at night, and nothing sounds fun, nothing, not even my favorites like grabbing coffee or reading, then I know there’s just one thing left to do. Sleep. More often than not, begrudgingly so. But my Self 30 min or 2 hours in the future always congratulates me on such a wise life choice. Every single time.

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From Daily Shot of Insight, Feb 14, 2022

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