Conditional Reality

An odd condition began affecting people that caused them to extend their sleep cycles. Folks who normally slept for eight hours now slept for twelve or thirteen. Many even longer. Some people were awake for only an hour or two, then it was back to bed again. The world was turning much quieter. Businesses failed at a record rate. Breakfast became the only meal of the day. Dreams were everywhere: so many of them that they gathered in clumps and rolled across the landscape with the wind. You could pluck and eat them. Their juice was bitter, like sad memories.