The End of Night

Posted on by Live & Learn

the-end-of-night-Paul-Bogard…In our haste to embrace a 24/7 lifestyle that makes increasing demands on our time, nocturnal hours once reserved for sociability, reflection and rest have been usurped. “What art thou good for … but only for love and fornication?” the character “Night” is asked in John Dryden’s comedy “Amphitryon” (1690). Today, not only is one-fifth of the labor force employed in shift work, but many day-to-day tasks (grocery shopping, for instance) are performed after dark. Silence and solitude fall prey to around-the-clock television and the allure of the Internet. Texting teenagers take their iPhones to bed. Burning the candle at both ends, we struggle to streamline sleep with the aid of plush pillows and prescription drugs and, in the process, impair our age-old ability to dream, a wellspring of ideas as inspiring as a starlit sky.

~A. Roger Ekirch, a review on Paul Bogard’s book titled The End of Night.

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34 thoughts on “The End of Night”

  4. I’d be interested in reading that book. Being out of sync with the rest of the world, I refuse to allow my nocturnal hours get taken over by busyness. I have a friend who will text at 11 pm and as early as 6 am. I never answer those texts back.

  5. I confess to being a happy dinosaur. I don’t know how to text and don’t own a gadget that you can text from…at least…I don’t think I do. Maybe my husband’s old Motorola cell phone is textable. But I have no desire to text anyone. I thought that was what email was for.

  6. I was reading all those comments…you know, above this one…and thought for sure I saw a familiar name. I need to be a kinder, gentler me…that’s what I’m thinking. I’m really only watching out for your well being my friend…except for the creepy stuff. I had to say something about that. No one else was pointing out the obvious. Anyway, back to this post. It is just one more sad thing about life now…that “night”…with all of its romance and dreams…is truly being sacrificed for our fast pace. I did start texting, but only very reluctantly, and only because my kids never actually “talk” on the phone. I believe that in the evolution of our species, the survivors will probably be the ones with the pointiest fingers. Just one MORE sad thing to think about.

    1. Wow. Hmm. Someone please clarify .. Is texting sending an email by iPhone? (Or other mobile) or, is it the messages my students send me when they are frantic -yes often in the middle of the night. Hence I have a new rule. I no longer take my mobile phone into the bedroom. ( cynical note from self to self, yea, we’ll see how long THAT lasts… )

      1. Texting can happen from phones, desktops, blackberries,iPads almost anything. They are shorter, quicker and offer nearly instantaneous connection without the delay. Sort of Twitter like…As to no longer taken my mobile phone into bedroom, I’ve done that. In it’s place sit laptop and Ipad. (crazy, I know)

        1. Ah… Well come to that, my laptop occupies a place in my bedroom at night.. I mean, you never know how long you might need to work on something late at night or early am, right? Hmmm.. Crazy that I conveniently overlooked that ! Such a thought-provoking article on the loss of the night, David.

  7. I have started to hate texting but I do reply to few close people or to an important message. Sometimes I feel I have become old before time 😉

  8. Losing the ability to get lost in the hypnotic quality of quiet and dark, the interplay of stars with the thoughts that appear as we ‘fall into the arms of Morpheus’ – these are more than romantic notions. They are restorative, they are healing. The mind needs time to process without extraneous stimuli, the heart needs time to beat uninterrupted by sudden emotional explosions and reactions (bad or good). I lay no claim to being a good sleeper, though I wish I were and remain a fan. I loved the post.

  9. I, myself, am a big fan of sleep. No electronic devices in my bedroom–not allowed. Every day I read about the palliative effects of sleep, and what’s worse, the severely negative effects of the lack thereof….premature aging, increased risk of heart disease, etc., etc. Mimi said it much more poetically than me, but the bottom line, that chap Morpheus is a steady date. 😉

  10. Looks interesting. I have been reading lately that even the light reflecting off of book pages is enough to mess up melatonin production. Who would have ever thought that sleep could be so complicated?

  11. Every summer, during vacation, I make it a point to sit under the stars for a few hours each night. And go to bed when tired. And wake up when rested. My body’s clock always resets itself, despite all the other crap I put it through the rest of the year.

    MJ

  12. Recently, a woman’s mobile phone exploded in her bed. It makes me wonder if there was an exceedingly hot conversation going on over the network, between her and her lover, to trigger such an event! 😉

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