What if the night lasted an hour?
Night lasts one hour. Darkness falls, and before you’ve brushed your teeth it’s getting light again.
The street lights are on, and the sky is already getting pale.
The first night
Dusk feels strange, because everyone knows how short it will be. The street lights come on, and almost immediately the sky starts turning pale.
Hardly anyone sleeps that first night. People stand at their windows and watch the dark disappear.
The first month
Families take turns sleeping during the one dark hour, and argue about who gets it. Everyone else sleeps in daylight, badly, with thick curtains and a fan running.
Burglaries drop, because there’s almost no darkness to work in. So does everyone’s energy.
Five years on
Children sleep in several short naps and think of a full night’s sleep as something from old stories. Towns are busy at 3 am, because it’s bright and someone is always on shift.
The single dark hour is precious. Restaurants charge more for it, and hospitals keep it for the patients who need deep sleep most.
Who wins
- Night-shift workersThe streets are awake when they are.
- People afraid of the darkIt never lasts long.
Who loses
- SleepAn hour of darkness isn’t a night.
- Parents of small childrenThe dark used to be when the house reset.
- Nocturnal animalsOwls, bats and foxes have one hour to do everything.
Blackout curtains can fake a night, and people in the Arctic summer already rely on them. What curtains can’t do is give the body the long, regular dark it has evolved to expect.
Could you live with one hour of night?
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