I visit this question with some regularity: Do I really need to sleep?
Tonight, for example, I feel tired. I could sleep quite easily, which is not something that can always be said. Sleeping, however, is not what I want to be doing. I'd rather be playing the fiddle or weaving small squares of fabric out of dryer lint. I'd rather be reading or writing. I'd rather be thinking about pickles, relish, vocabulary, and reading good.
Why, oh why is it necessary to sleep? My cell phone recharges pretty darn quickly. Twenty minutes, maybe. Can I recharge in twenty minutes? Nope. Not me. But if it did take only twenty minutes, would I resent that, too? It seems like I might not. But I probably would. Especially if that's all I knew. If I wasn't aware that twenty minutes wasn't a normal amount of time to sleep, if I didn't know that some doctors want you to get between eight and ten hours of sleep, then I'd be ticked off that I had to "waste" twenty minutes recharging.
I imagine having some kind of plug, likely in my elbow, that I could attach to the source of human energy sustenance. (Likely a den of teenagers and college students who sleep constantly. Or not at all.) I bet, though, that if there were a meter, I'd be staring at it thinking, "Come on! What's the hold up? Hurry! I've got things to do! This twenty minutes takes too long!" Just like a microwave takes too long. Or driving into town takes too long.
I wonder why it's necessary to sleep and I imagine having a way to get recharged without sleeping or spending too much time. I also imagine a day when I'm satisfied with what I've got, when sleeping feels good, just good, not guilty or necessary or something to get enough, but not too much, of. Sleep.
Posted by dotty at May 3, 2005 11:43 PM