Spending the whole day in bed -- snuggling under the covers with a pile of good books at my side, only getting up for drinks and food and other necessary things -- is one of my perennial fantasies.
Unfortunately, the only time I come close to this ideal is when I am too sniffly, coughy and/or achy to really enjoy it.
Only in sickness, only when the body finally says "enough", do we give ourselves permission to take to the bed. Health insists on activity; the to-do list has an end which is nowhere in sight. Staying in bed while healthy -- even on an overcast or rainy day -- feels so wrong. Even though we know in our heads it isn't.
If we all took a few "bed hours" each week -- even if it means taking to the bed an hour earlier than the normal sleep time -- I wonder how it would affect our well-being? I don't think it would hurt.
