If I didn’t need sleep, I could get so much more done. Late at night, I’d have the house to myself. I could let my mind wander down paths it rarely takes during my waking hours.
Absent the need for sleep, and with a clear mind uninterrupted by conversations or daydreams or text messages or the sound of cars passing on the street or the noise of the television coming through the wall, uncharted ideas and possibilities might fully develop in my head.
If my mind and my body could survive without the requirement for restorative sleep, I could accomplish so much more, both physically and mentally. At night, when the rest of my world sleeps, I could practice disciplines to improve my mind and to relax the tightly-wound person I have always been. My desire for serenity, an unrealistic desire for someone of my temperament and lack of discipline, could become reality.
Alone, in the deepest darkness of the night, I could practice autogenic relaxation and progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing and dozens of other focused means of stilling the mind.
In fact, I don’t need to go without sleep to accomplish any of the possibilities I wrote about in the paragraphs above. With sufficient motivation to accomplish them, I will accomplish every one of them that matters to me.
“If I didn’t need sleep” is a convenient crutch, absolving me of responsibility. When I remove that unnecessary crutch, clearly the responsibility becomes mine.
