
Stoic philosopher Seneca once marveled at how stupid even the smartest people are when it comes to protecting their time: “No person hands out their money to passersby, but to how many do each of us hand out our lives! We’re tightfisted with property and money, yet think too little of wasting time, the one thing about which we should all be the toughest misers.”
“We don’t live in a coherent age. Walking through the culture is like walking through the surf after a battering storm, stepping through shards of insatiable consumerism, gaudy FunTime noise, self-indulgent weepiness, toilet humor, posturing nihilism. Things keep saying they’re important, but they turn out to be more loud than deep. Stepping around the shards, we begin to wonder if anything might be important, anything might last or…”
… allow for sufficient time to cool off,” says Harris, who was not involved in Haghayegh’s research. “Instead, a hot bath 90 minutes before bed — or exercise four to six hours before bedtime, as the effect takes longer to work — helps you warm up and then cool down to mimic what good sleepers do.”