As I bounce out of bed in the mornings .. and I really do bounce.. as John brings me my first cup of coffee on his way out the door between 4.30 and 5 am. PLUS I am one of those annoying Morning People -I sometimes wonder how much better it would be if we did not need so much sleep at all.
We would have the same amount of work but so much more time to do it in. No yawning by 7pm desperate to just Lie Down. Please anything, just let me lie down! If I could work merrily until midnight and still bounce up at 5am just imagine how much more I could get done! What if we did not need to sleep at all. If there was no culture of sleep. If the whole world never slept. No-one even knew what sleep was. 
What if we were to rest standing up like cows or horses or move about in the darkness like rabbits. Chatting in the inky blackness without fear. And seeing in the dark. I think seeing in the dark would be useful if we did not need to sleep. Or maybe they would have invented some see in the dark glasses that were a bit trendier than the night vision giggle goggles they have now. Those will never catch on as a fashion item I can tell you that for nothing.
There would be a whole other way of living. Midnight snacks would be a meal. Living in the dark would be normal. No-one would be scared of the dark. We could save all the house work for the dark hours. Lighting would not be needed.Our schedules would be completely different. We would shower whenever we were dirty. Play basket ball for fun at 2am in the morning. Everything would be black and busy but no-one would bump into each other. There would be no bedrooms. Imagine that – no bedrooms with curtains to pull and doors to shut so we can sleep. They would be called nap rooms because it seems to me that laying down would still seem attractive. There would probably be less babies. And we may not live as long. And we might be all insane but then insane would be normal. But there would be less crime, or maybe more as the case may be. 
Do you wonder about those things?
Have you ever though that it would be useful to have extendable legs? Or little suction cups on your arms so you could carry more stuff? Not velcro though velcro is so Tuesday.
This is what I was wondering as I was farming yesterday.
I hope you all have a lovely day. Just not in the dark.
I was feeling a little bit lonely last night so I went and read the Join Us comments page. (Above) I love that page. If you have not written a little in the Join Us Page feel free to have a look and maybe leave a message about where you are. It is a good page. Not dark.
Your friend on the farmy
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
46 responses to “What if we did not need to sleep”
If we didn’t sleep we wouldn’t have dreams, but then we would just have day dreams which can be as much fun 🙂
This post gave me a case of the “night vision giggles!” 🙂
Morning Bev, I just came in from the milking and OH MY, what a lot of giggly typos. i have fixed them. Apparently I should not be writing when I should be sleeping!. c
Ha! I’m glad you left the giggle in! I love typos of the giggly sort! This was a fun post.
I have given this very subject consideration and how wonderful it would be, it truly would though I must admit cleaning did not enter into into it. Imagine so much more time. But then on some nights as I snuggle down and give thanks I think, aaaaah. Some pleasure there too. Have a wonderful day and keep thinking those wonderful thoughts!
Morning Chris, YEs we would miss out on that deep relief of laying down in our beds. I do enjoy that part of my day.
That’s funny! I am also an annoying morning person! But I do love a good night’s sleep as well.
I suspect that you’d just find more work to do – not a case of doing the same in longer time. What an energetic post! Are you on something? Extendable legs for me please, so I didn’t have to climb ladders – I’m OK going up but hate that swinging the leg over to get back onto the ladder when I have to come down.
I am an annoying morning person too, but I stumble more than bounce out of bed. I hate to waste time by sleeping in.
I reread the ‘Join Us Page’ again and it is very comforting. Sleep is a new phenomena for me, mind you I seldom sleep right through. I do remember when caring 24/7 for my husband over six years, that three consecutive hours of sleep was a good night. Yesterday the sky hung low, the rain ceaseless and the air was heavy, I walked round like I was drugged to the gills all day. Thankfully the air is fresher today.
I too am one of those annoying morning peope; drove my wife crazy for years with the smile I could produce when I first opened my eyes 🙂 I require less sleep than most and am a light sleep as well. My wife never saw me sleep the first two years we were together. Still, to rest is good and daydreaming and afternoon naps essential. I’ve read that Buckminster Fuller only catnaped, never slept.
It’s a good thing I don’t sleep much, the crazy season has started, so it’s up a 5:30am to start the oven, then baking and prep’ing till 10pm, 7 days a week for the next 2+ months. Sigh!! I love what I’m doing.
1. You are related to my daughter. Don’t know how that happened but you are. She’s always saying, “Mom, why don’t we have two mouths. It would be so useful. Mom why don’t we have flaps. Flaps are so much more interesting than arms. Mom, why do we have exactly five fingers? Why not just one more? Mom…” You get the gist. She’s 14; she’s been like this forever. The questions keep coming. 2. I love to sleep. Specially naps in the sun. I used to resist it into the wee hours, but menopause has made me very sleepy indeed. Like my body’s doing some work that wears it out…or maybe my head’s doing it…anyway. I’m tired a lot. But I’ve always loved the expression, “I’ll sleep when I’m dead.” 3. Our rabbit hardly ever sleeps. Her nose hardly ever stops twitching. And, at night, when dark falls, she goes crazy (if we let her), bouncing around the house and trying to draw us into giddy games of hide, seek and chase. She could accomplish a LOT if she’d set her mind to it, but she’s utterly without ambition.
I wake up at least a dozen times a night. Sometimes, I can’t go back to sleep and I am staring into the dark, thinking dark, anxious thoughts. Sometimes, I just get up and crochet until I get sleepy again. While I was at the farmy, I slept like the proverbial log, no tossing about, none of that. Something about the quiet country air, the stillness. Perhaps C put some magic farmy dust in the food when I wasn’t looking. If so, can you please mail me a bucketful? 🙂 If we’re going all “what iffy”….how about retractable feathers. I want to fly! Good morning C!
You slept beause she worked your tail off and you loved every minute of it! It was nice to meet you Kim.
I tried to make her stop!! giggle.. c
And you as well, Connie. I did love every minute of it!
If we didn’t need sleep I would be spending more hours with my children. I loves those little humans, but sleep time is my mommy break time.
If I didn’t need sleep, I would do all the dreary dull stuff like housework at night, so that I could spend the sunshine hours enjoying myself. If I didn’t need a bedroom, I could take over even more rooms in the house for my hobbies. If I didn’t need a bed, though, I would have nothing to make quilts for. Bummer….
Oh how I wish I didn’t need to sleep or lie down so much. If I get up early I am completely exhausted before midday. At lease three naps a day keep me going in between small bursts of activity. Night vision would be very useful and instead of arm fixings, I would like an extra arm or two, though clothes would need a complete re-think! I’d never noticed the Join Us thingy, so thanks for pointing it out. I will have a look later. I am about to start a baby quilt project with some lovely bright scraps.
I’ve always wished that I had a big zipper that ran down the front of me. Then I could quickly split in two, and go in two different directions!
Wow! You would need a zippered brain too.. c
This post almost sounds like you haven’t slept in 2 days. 🙂
My first thought was a morbid one—-we’d kill off our planet so much more quickly if we never slept.
I too, am a morning person. The temps are cooler and the light in the sunrise is so rejuvenating. I see so many things in nature that I wouldn’t see any other time of the day.
If we never slept, I be that person that would sneak a nap. Lying down in my soft bed at night is quite literally one of my favorite things to do. A large AAAaaaahhhhhh escapes me every. single. night.