Try To Stay Awake
Sleep, according to most people, is a very desirable thing. The hardest part of having a baby, I'm told, is that you don't get any sleep for months. One of the worst parts of getting old is apparently that you're unable to get a good night's sleep. In military interrogations, sleep-deprivation is considered very useful for loosening prisoners' (sorry, "detainees'") tongues. Shakespeare liked sleep; he wrote that it "knit[ted] up the ravell'd sleeve of care" (Macbeth 2.2.36). So clearly, sleep is often viewed as a wonderful thing. A lot of my fellow college students seem to want to do nothing else (except at night). But this morning I woke up feeling terrible, and when I thought about it, I realized that I always do. Which forces me to wonder: what is the point of going to sleep if you're more tired when you wake up? Why is it that when you start to sleep, it's so hard to stop? And is this really the hallmark of a healthy activity?
Sleep frightens me, frankly, because nobody knows where you go for those six or eight hours. Sure, you can be called back at any second, but where are you? You go to nowhere, and sometimes you don't get all the way back until 1 p.m. or later. Aside from the bothersome possibility that it's a preview of death, don't you think you would accomplish a lot more if you didn't have to sleep? People are always saying that they wish they could put more hours in the day, but I would be satisfied if we could just make use of the ones we've already got. Not really. But I would like to have those hours. If I did, perhaps I'd be able to worry less about whether I'm using my time in a worthwhile way. But then, time is finite and no matter how much you have, it will one day run out, so I guess we'll always have cause to worry.
I guess what it comes down to is a simple piece of advice: life is short, so make the most of it.
Oh, dear. I believe I've fallen victim to a cliche. Cut off my typing fingers (there are two) and put me in the stocks. I may die of the shame. It's clearly time to end this little discourse.
Sleep frightens me, frankly, because nobody knows where you go for those six or eight hours. Sure, you can be called back at any second, but where are you? You go to nowhere, and sometimes you don't get all the way back until 1 p.m. or later. Aside from the bothersome possibility that it's a preview of death, don't you think you would accomplish a lot more if you didn't have to sleep? People are always saying that they wish they could put more hours in the day, but I would be satisfied if we could just make use of the ones we've already got. Not really. But I would like to have those hours. If I did, perhaps I'd be able to worry less about whether I'm using my time in a worthwhile way. But then, time is finite and no matter how much you have, it will one day run out, so I guess we'll always have cause to worry.
I guess what it comes down to is a simple piece of advice: life is short, so make the most of it.
Oh, dear. I believe I've fallen victim to a cliche. Cut off my typing fingers (there are two) and put me in the stocks. I may die of the shame. It's clearly time to end this little discourse.
Labels: mush grey matter, running lights, sight unseen
posted by Oliver Lemke at 8:24 PM
3 Comments:
Listen, Shawn. I'm sure you're a nice guy, but when I see that I have comments, I get all excited, and it's very disappointing to find that they're from somebody I don't know trying to give me information I don't want. I'm a sensitive guy, and I can't handle much disappointment, so if in the future you're thinking about leaving a note, don't.
Oliver! Don't fear the cliche...embrace it! It beautifully sets off the un-cliche-ed-ness (that's a word of my own invention, thank you muchly!) of the rest of the post. Oh, and if you want to get rid of these spam commenters, just send me an e-mail...I'll walk you through the blocking process!
Miss you! Oh! And I need to see you over Thanksgiving break...I got you a wicked-cool b-day gift! :-D
Thank you for the informative blog. Now buy viagra, you stupid drip.
I kid. I am a real commenter. I think... I think that sleep is good. I look forward to old age. You may not get a good night's sleep, but you get to make up for it all day long with an easy chair (or is the bad night's rest making up for the easy chair? sort of a chicken/egg thing).
Take a Psych couse, they cover why you're sleepy the next day sometimes.
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