After all isn’t that what coffee if for? Tiredness is a part of life, just as energy is its mainstay, and there is not a lot to choose between being physically tired from too much labouring or mentally tired from too much thinking. Life is an exhausting business, even for those of is us who only need a few hours sleep a day to stay fit.
But in the West we tend to think of being tired as something to associate with old people and something to be overcome when you are young. There are numerous pep-up drinks, and hundreds of stratagems for staying awake when you would rather be asleep and let’s admit it, sometimes you have to stay awake because the work place is not a place for sleepy-heads.
But there is a feeling that because you can spend ‘x’ amount of your life asleep you are somehow losing life. As someone who has power napped in the afternoons all his life I have to say, without sleep you have no life. To be able to turn off and rest is one of the most valuable assets of human existence, as a rested human being can take more stress and do more and be be more productive than a tired human being.
In fact is is the ability to rest that gives our wakeful hours their intensity.