Brian Wilson went to bed for three years. Jean-Michel Basquiat would spend all day in bed. Monica Ali, Charles Bukowski, Marcel Proust, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Tracey Emin, Emily Dickinson, Edith Sitwell, Frida Kahlo, William Wordsworth, René Descartes, Mark Twain, Henri Matisse, Kathy Acker, Derek Jarman and Patti Smith all worked or work from bed and they’re productive people. (Am I protesting too much?) Humans take to their beds for all sorts of reasons: because they’re overwhelmed by life, need to rest, think, recover from illness and trauma, because they’re cold, lonely, scared, depressed – sometimes I lie in bed for weeks with a puddle of depression in my sternum – to work, even to protest (Emily Dickinson, John and Yoko). Polar bears spend six months of the year sleeping, dormice too. Half their lives are spent asleep, no one calls them lazy. There’s a region in the South of France, near the Alps, where whole villages used to sleep through the seven months of winter – I might be descended from them. And in 1900, it was recorded that peasants from Pskov in northwest Russia would fall into a deep winter sleep called lotska for half the year: ‘for six whole months out of the twelve to be in the state of Nirvana longed for by Eastern sages, free from the stress of life, from the need to labour, from the multitudinous burdens, anxieties, and vexations of existence’.
— Viv Albertine, To Throw Away Unopened: A Memoir (Faber & Faber Social; May 8, 2018)
Notes: Photo via S L @ gingermias @ Unsplash. Quote via neverneverland
Live & Learn 
It’s hard to give yourself permission to stay in bed these days. xo
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So true Darlene.
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Completely unfamiliar to this insomniac, but it sounds very comforting. Truth is, even if slept like, well, like a good sleeper, I’d bristle against staying under the covers for hours on end. And that said, I could feel the luxury in the post…there may even be some drool involved. 😉
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Laughing. Yes to all.
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sleep is a wonderful cure for so many things, something I am eternally seeking more of
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Me too!!!
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perfect activity for your staycation!
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Yes!
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i hope so )
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👍
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And here we are simply wishing for eight hours uninterrupted… are we looking at this all wrong?
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Maybe. Just maybe.
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🙂
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People asked my grandfather, who lived until 99, why he slept so much. His reply was: “There are people there as well.” I guess he must have recalled his dreams…
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Beautiful…
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One of my favorite words multitudinous! It appears in Moby-Dick twice. I waged a running battle with sleep for 30 years. I thought if I could just get enough dope I would never have to sleep again.
Not anymore! I’m a good sleeper. Wonderful dreams. One thing I have discovered is that everybody is tired when they first wake up. It helps if you pop up. Don’t hit the snooze. Put your feet on the floor it’s time to go!
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You’re a good sleeper. You need to sell the secret sauce!
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