Notwithstanding the official definitions I have just linked to, the best explanation I have come across of this (and I cannot remember which autism/ADHD channel it was: my apologies) is along the lines of:
staying up until one has does enough good stuff to feel that one’s existence for another day has been justified
The definitions I linked to trivialise this to “personal time”, but the problem is more the soul-crushing nature of existence in the lives of most people in the modern neoliberal, capitalist world.
The problem is not the absence of personal time so much as the complete absence of personal value in work and societal expectations. The activities which have been triviallised as “personal time” are an attempt to trick one’s brain - by triggering dopamine - into thinking life is worth living.
Provide some genuine value in people’s lives, and I consider the need for sleep medication and the like would reduce significantly - it would not go away, as there are other, valid issues involved in people’s sleep problems.
Possibly one of those other issues is that humans’ natural sleep patterns may actually be to divide sleep up. In December of last year I published the following article in an “interesting reading” post of mine - and referred to the concept when discussing sleep in Post No. 2,668 - Recovering from a corporate life - Episode 23: continuing recovery (23rd December, 2023):
“Why Humans Are Supposed to Sleep in Two 4-Hour Phases” https://youtu.be/DKBXFfEPJyg?si=pEWYFElcIAiIFa2o
My use of biphasic sleep to date has been informal - and thus irregular.
I am now going to formalise that (reminders on my smartphone and everything 😲 ) - which will hopefully enable me to do more energy work, meditation, and writing in the quieter hours of night.
I will still be awake for most of the daylight hours, so I can interact with family and friends, but I wasn’t doing much of that in the late evening anyway.
So ... along with a Nanna nap aka siesta or two during the day, it will be interesting to see how this goes.
By the way, I considered making this part of my “recovering from corporate life” series, but it is more general than that.
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