Plus: The fandom fueling Netflix’s most popular movie ever
Welcome to The Wonder Reader, a weekly guide to new and classic Atlantic stories that will fascinate and delight you. Take a break from the news with us every Saturday morning.
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As a self-proclaimed evening person, I struggle to admit this, but I do find my rare early mornings calming and satisfying in a way I never expected. As Arthur C. Brooks notes in a recent article, not everyone is built to feel their best at the same time of day. But there are things you can do to add stability to whichever time of day you feel your most stressed out. “If you, like me, struggle to feel human in the morning, this protocol can probably help you,” Brooks writes. Today’s newsletter rounds up stories about how different people prefer to get through the earliest hours of the day.
The history of “first sleep” and “second sleep” holds surprising lessons about preindustrial life, 21st-century anxiety, and the problem with digging for utopia in the past. (From 2022)
