Essay on sleep by Sara Protasi I n this sensitive essay, the philosopher Sara Protasi explores sleep not just as a mere biological necessity requiring optimisation, but a profound source of daily beauty and human connection. By analysing our bedtime routine, she invites us to embrace our natural vulnerability to rediscover the minuscule joys that appear when we finally allow ourselves to slow down. W hen the sun sets, the natural world slows down. As the light gets softer and more diffused, plants cease to photosynthesize, so flowers close their petals and leaves become droopy. Diurnal animals settle down in their burrows, dens, and nests, while nocturnal animals cautiously and sleepily come out of them. In the human world, we often ignore these signs of impending night time, distracted by bright electric lights, the never-ending flow of car traffic, the pings of computers and cellphones, the illusion of distinction from all the other living creatures. And yet, as our
planet rotates away from its star and darkness descends, we find ourselves yawning, fatigued, without enough energy to match the artificial brightness and buzzing that might surround us, and, sooner or later, we yearn for sleep. We cannot help it. Just like every other animal, we must sleep. All our technology has not yet produced a way for us to get rid of this biological need. But this necessity, far from being something to bemoan, is a great blessing, because sleep is an immense, if often unnoticed, source of aesthetic, interpersonal, and intrinsic value. Humans do not simply fall asleep. We go to sleep; we prepare for bedtime. We engage in activities meant to support our slowing down, switching from a diurnal mindset of action and doing, to a nocturnal one of passivity and mere being. I call these routines sleeping rituals, because they are not only functional to getting better rest, but they’re also replete with what philosophers call everyday aesthetic value. This is the type of value that stems from prosaic, everyday activities. Think of enjoying the taste of simple home meals; of tidying up one’s
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