The Wizard of Sleep Deficit

There once was a great wizard who by his arts learned the logic of sleep.  He found that every sleep deficit must be paid for or it would turn into general malaise, specific ailments such as a trick knee, or above all an earlier end to life.  Old age, he came to believe, was nothing more than the accumulated sleep deficit of a life time.

By his arts he was able to probe the secret of his own sleep deficit.  It was a staggering sum.  He could only recover it by sleeping for days and days, and who had time for that, or would be able to?  Nonetheless returning to the flush of good health was attractive, not to mention long life, so he fully intended to find time and means to recover his sleep deficit.  In the meantime he kept on with his affairs.  Unfortunately, from time to time he even added to his own sleep deficit.  There was always something pressing.  He had aches and pains, but he was used to them.

He became old and withered.  He felt his life force growing thin.   Finally the whole issue of sleep deficit became urgent.  He researched like made some method of regaining all his lost sleep, and on the very verge of death cast the spell that put himself into an enchanted slumber.

He slept on and on, and every hour more he slept by that much more did death’s shadow recede.  Years passed.

At last he had slept away his entire accumulated sleep deficit of a lifetime.  He woke up healthy and vigorous and, having reached his allotted span of life, promptly died.

What the moral may be is not apparent.  The muse gave me this little story without any explanation.  I think it may be something about not putting things off till tomorrow.  If the wizard had done his sleep earlier, he would have lived the same amount of time awake but in great health.

But what makes me hesitate is this.  In the story, the wizard dies smiling.  And there is a hint that if the dreams he had in all his last years sleeping could be known, they would shake the earth.

Perhaps the moral is that it is never too late to find your way back, and whatever route you take you are sure to find splendors along the way.