Why the lie-in seems right

Before taking the lie-in apart, it's worth saying plainly what it's for, because it isn't for nothing. There are five things it seems to give, and the first four are real needs.

The first is sleep. You are short of it by Friday. That's not an illusion, and chapter 3 is about how real the shortfall is. If you've slept six and a half hours a night for five nights and your body wants eight, you're several hours down, and sleeping late is the most obvious way to put some back.

The second is the absence of the alarm. Being woken by a noise at a time you didn't choose, five days running, is a small daily violence, and the pleasure of waking without it is partly the pleasure of not being told what to do. Chapter 7 is about this, and the answer isn't to dismiss it.

The third is time with nobody wanting anything. For a lot of people the weekend morning in bed is the only hour of the week that belongs entirely to them. No emails, no children yet, no list. Lying there awake at nine on a Saturday with nothing required is a kind of rest that isn't sleep, and it's worth having.

The fourth is the feeling on Sunday afternoon. After two long nights you feel, by Sunday lunchtime, like a person again. The fog lifts. That feeling is genuine and it's what you remember on Friday when you decide not to set the alarm.

The fifth is the belief that the two things are unrelated, that Monday is bad because Monday is bad, and the weekend was separate and good. This is the one that isn't true, and the whole book is really about it. The Sunday afternoon feeling and the Monday morning feeling are two ends of the same thing. The lie-in produces both.

None of the first four needs goes away when you change the habit. You still need the sleep, and this book will argue you get more of it, not less. You still need a morning without an alarm, and you can have one, at a time your body clock can afford. You still need the hour that belongs to you. What changes is where in the weekend those things sit, and whether you pay for them on Monday.

An earlier book in this series, You were tired at ten, is about staying up late on weeknights for time of your own, and it's the other half of the short week. This book is about what you do at the weekend with the shortfall the week left you.