Sleep is Universal--Ruminations

We think we are so smart. We divide people into groups by age, gender, race, religion, nationality, political party, voting patterns, and on and on. People get advanced degrees in these sorts of divisions. We can learn about how to market to each group, how each demographic changes over time, how to forecast those changes, and so forth.

But when it comes to one thing…everybody does it. Everybody sleeps.

African Americans and Caucasians and Amer-Indians and Hispanics and Asians and everybody else…

Christians and Jews and Moslems and Buddhists and Hindus and agnostics…
Babies and old folks and everybody in between…

Men and women and girls and boys and even people living in the question of which category they belong to…

Autoworkers, teachers, executives, and CEOs…

Dentists, doctors, drivers, warehouse workers, and car salespeople…

Pregnant women, NASCAR fans, runners, and lawyers…

Actors, panhandlers, and presidents…

Bureaucrats, athletes, professors, and scientists…

Researchers, taxi drivers, quilt makers, and homeless people…

Congresswomen and congressmen, jokesters, and soldiers…

In short, everybody sleeps. Moms, dads, kids, uncles, grandparents, friends, enemies….everybody sleeps.

Not only that, the entire animal kingdom sleeps. Dogs, cats, bats, rats, elephants, and zebras sleep. Well, they are all mammals, but insects, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and fish sleep too. Dinosaurs slept.

We could go on. But, we know you get the point.

When we encounter another person, no matter how different they may seem (or we may assume), how often do we think: “I have a profound experience in common with this person. We both do the exact same thing for a third of our lives.”

If you ever have trouble acknowledging someone who seems so different from you, you can always ask this simple question, “How are you sleeping?”

It’s surprising how human the answers can be.