"It is a common experience that a problem difficult at night is resolved in the morning after the committee of sleep has worked on it"
About this Quote
Steinbeck gives sleep the dignity of a workplace: not a passive blackout but a “committee” clocking in after hours, shuffling papers in the back of the mind. It’s a slyly democratic metaphor. Committees are messy, slow, and oddly effective when no single ego gets to dominate. By casting sleep this way, he flatters the reader’s frustration while quietly rebuking the modern impulse to grind through a problem by sheer willpower. The line isn’t mystical; it’s practical, almost folksy neuroscience before neuroscience was a lifestyle brand.
The intent is permission. If you’re stuck at midnight, you’re not failing-you’re working the wrong shift. Steinbeck’s subtext is that consciousness is a poor foreman: it panics, fixates, and mistakes tension for progress. Night amplifies that, turning uncertainty into catastrophe. Morning, by contrast, delivers the small miracle of distance. Whatever “committee” means here-recombining memories, softening emotional charge, letting associations form-it produces a result that feels earned without feeling forced.
Context matters: Steinbeck wrote in an era of physical labor and long days, but also of mounting industrial regimentation. The metaphor bridges craft and toil. Writers know the phenomenon intimately: the sentence that wouldn’t land at 1 a.m. arrives clean at 9. The aphorism works because it reframes rest as part of the job, not its enemy-and because it admits, with wry humility, that our best thinking often happens when we stop trying to be in charge.
The intent is permission. If you’re stuck at midnight, you’re not failing-you’re working the wrong shift. Steinbeck’s subtext is that consciousness is a poor foreman: it panics, fixates, and mistakes tension for progress. Night amplifies that, turning uncertainty into catastrophe. Morning, by contrast, delivers the small miracle of distance. Whatever “committee” means here-recombining memories, softening emotional charge, letting associations form-it produces a result that feels earned without feeling forced.
Context matters: Steinbeck wrote in an era of physical labor and long days, but also of mounting industrial regimentation. The metaphor bridges craft and toil. Writers know the phenomenon intimately: the sentence that wouldn’t land at 1 a.m. arrives clean at 9. The aphorism works because it reframes rest as part of the job, not its enemy-and because it admits, with wry humility, that our best thinking often happens when we stop trying to be in charge.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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