It had been two hundred years since anyone on Earth had slept.
No one was really complaining. After all, the no-sleep revolution had revitalized the world’s failing economy, driven humanity to new productive heights, and given everyone the extra eight hours they deserved to enjoy their hobbies, friends, and families.
At last there was time for everything; time to put in a full day’s work and see the kids off to school, time to clean the house and go out on the town with your friends. All in all, the world was a happier, friendlier, and busier place.
As Lou took his Somnambu-no tablet, swallowing it down one morning with a bracing glass of energy juice, he looked out onto the grey street, with square houses and safe, bare lawns, and smiled. Great Grandma Cooley was just a nutty old woman. All those stories she’d told, refusing to take her tablets – they’d had to put her in the home. It was better for her there.
After all, what good had ‘dreaming’ ever done anyone anyway?
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