Sleep as fast-forward

[simont]

So I see on LJ that quite a few people on my friends list stayed up very late last night to watch the US election results come in.

I didn't; I went to bed as usual, and checked the result on the web when I got up (admittedly half an hour early) this morning. This is generally what I do with elections in my own country, too. My stated reason for this yesterday was that whatever the result turned out to be, I couldn't imagine my attitude to it today being improved by sleep deprivation. Other people responded that the sense of suspense would prevent them from getting to sleep until they knew the result. I thought, at the time, that I must simply not be feeling the suspense in the same way.

However, I think that in fact that wasn't the answer. What it was is that I did want to know what the result was – so I didn't want to spend several more hours of subjective time waiting to find out! By falling asleep, I got to effectively skip ahead to the bit where I find out who did it, instead of having to plod through the intervening pages one by one.

Comments

[aldabra]

Yes.

I thought I didn't want to sit through another night of the exit polls being wrong and disaster unfolding in slow motion. I'd rather get the sleep and then hear whatever-it-was in the morning. I've had enough slow-motion-disaster election nights now that I don't look forward to them with eager anticipation any more.

[pne.livejournal.com]

That seems like a good use of time.

[woodpijn.livejournal.com]

I agree.

I do the same with other things I'm looking forward to, e.g. if Alex has been away and is coming home in the morning.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking too, along with "I am too tired to keep my eyes open" and "I have to teach at 10am".

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

You take holiday to code, I take holiday to watch politics (even other people's) :P

[tackline.livejournal.com]

It's an event. We don't have enough events.

Although the SkyNews (limited TV selection in my hotel) coverage sucked.