Countdown: Humanity's struggle to survive against yesterday

Chapter 61 Speculation

Consciousness Day, December 15, 2046.

The five members of the Huitian team have fully adapted to working at Taiqing Mountain.

That day, the world had just begun its reversal, and it happened to be noon. After waking up, the five of them casually went down to the lobby on the first floor to have lunch.

At the dinner table, Zhang Jimin handed Jiang Ning a tablet computer:

"Ningzi, the domestic sleep research report covering the past 50 years has been released..."

Jiang Ning took the tablet computer, but instead of looking at the specific text analysis, he directly pulled up a sleep duration chart.

As expected, the curve representing sleep duration remained relatively stable at around 10 hours per person for the first 10 years after 1996, with little fluctuation.

However, starting in 2006, this curve began to gradually decline, and by 2016, the average sleep duration had dropped to 8.2 hours.

From 2016 to 2026, the average sleep duration per person will decrease by almost 0.1 hours per year.

Jiang Ning zoomed in on the screen and saw that in 2025, the average nighttime sleep duration of Chinese residents was 6.97 hours. The curve fluctuated slightly, and if the image hadn't been zoomed in, this fluctuation would not have been visible at all. The sleep duration increased by 7 minutes compared to the previous year.

After 2026, the curve stopped fluctuating and continued to decline. By 2036, the average sleep duration will have fallen to less than 6 hours.

Looking at the last ten years from 2036 to 2046, the curve has been slowly declining on the 6-hour indicator for the first five years, but it started to drop sharply in the last five years.

Jiang Ning didn't look at the data representing 2046; he already knew that data.

Because he was the one who led the compilation and publication of the 2046 National Sleep Research Report.

"One hour!"

Jiang Ning clearly remembers how shocked he was when this data came out.

With a population of 17 billion, the average person in China only gets 5.2 hours of sleep.

75% of people experience sleep anxiety, and 95% are addicted to smart devices.

This percentage includes everyone, regardless of gender, from children to the elderly.

Society as a whole is like it's been injected with stimulants. When you're in it, you don't feel anything, but from God's perspective, everyone is busy and the whole world is in a frenzy.

Jiang Ning took a sip of coffee and turned to look at Sun Fumin.

"Brother Fumin, how's your usual routine?"

"well enough!"

Sun Fumin looked up and glanced at the tablet Jiang Ning was holding, then replied, somewhat puzzled.

"What time do I usually go to bed? I mean when I'm back in my hometown."

"This one?"

Sun Fumin picked up a slice of watermelon from the table, ate it casually, and said, "I basically don't sleep unless I'm sleepy. Most of the time it seems to be after 3 a.m. What's wrong?"

Jiang Ning nodded, then looked at Lu Xue: "Xiao Xue, what about you?"

Lu Xue was eating an ice cream with her head down when she heard the sound. She immediately put down her spoon and smiled shyly, "Team Leader Jiang, Fu Min and I are about the same. We usually go to bed after 3 a.m. on average."

"Aren't you sleepy?" Jiang Ning suddenly asked.

"Sleepy? Of course I'm sleepy!" Lu Xue nodded. "I used to swear every time I woke up that I would never stay up late again, but I just couldn't fall asleep at night."

At this point, Lu Xue smiled shyly, "It's not that I can't sleep. For example, when I'm resting, I'll feel sleepy after dinner. If I fall asleep at this time, I can definitely fall asleep. But once it's past 10 o'clock, if I want to fall asleep, I have to wait until I'm really sleepy."

"Hehe, me too, me too!" Sun Fumin chimed in from the side.

"Where is Su Mian?"

Jiang Ning looked at Su Mian and asked.

"Me?"

Su Mian had read the "China Sleep Research Report 2046". She remembered that the national sleep duration hit a low point that year, around 5 hours.

She was surprised at the time, but quickly put it out of her mind.

Now that they saw that Zhang Jimin had already completed his first phase of tasks, and that Jiang Ning had suddenly asked everyone questions, they assumed it was a work meeting and quickly sat up straight.

"I'm about the same as them, what's wrong, Team Leader Jiang? Has our Huitian Team made any new discoveries?"

"It's not exactly a new discovery!"

Jiang Ning handed the tablet back to Zhang Jimin.

"Let Old Zhang speak..."

Zhang Jimin nodded with a smile, first lowered his head to operate the device for a while, and then raised his head to adjust his glasses.

"I've already sent you this data. Take a look when you have time. I'll just give you the summary. In short, the sleep patterns of Chinese residents over the past decade show that the average sleep duration has been decreasing year by year, dropping to 5.2 hours..."

Sun Fumin asked, "What does this mean?"

Zhang Jimin chuckled, "If the world doesn't experience a major setback, this doesn't really mean anything. At most, it might mean that I feel a little more tired every day and that my health is a little compromised."

By the way, every year, various sleep research institutes in China issue announcements reminding everyone to pay attention to sleep. The National Health Commission has also repeatedly called on the public to ensure adequate sleep.

But as you've seen, the reality is that even people like us don't prioritize sleep, and the general public just listens without really paying attention.

After saying that, Zhang Jimin shrugged, a self-deprecating look on his face.

"Indeed!" Su Mian also said with emotion.

"Although the sleep health campaign has become a social consensus and has been incorporated into the Healthy China strategy, the reality is that knowing about it is one thing, and doing it is another. Take me for example, my father is a university president and my family is well-off, so I should not have much pressure. However, I like to watch dramas. I don't have time to watch them during the day, so I stay up late at night to watch them until I'm satisfied before I go to sleep."

Sun Fumin grinned: "I know that. Aren't they all saying online that it's called a compensatory psychology?"

Lu Xue quietly raised her hand and looked at Zhang Jimin: "Brother Zhang, can I understand that Team Leader Jiang asked you to collect this data in order to prove that the world's great regression is caused by humans not getting enough sleep?"

Zhang Jimin shrugged and looked at Jiang Ning:

"You'll have to ask Ningzi about that. I'm just surprised by this phenomenon, and at the same time, I feel ashamed that I, as a sleep research expert, haven't been able to get enough sleep. As for whether the disaster was caused by lack of sleep, to be honest, I still don't believe it."

These words were exceptionally frank, and they also subtly expressed Zhang Jimin's attitude.

Su Mian and Lu Xue looked at Zhang Jimin in surprise upon hearing this. They didn't quite understand what Zhang Jimin meant, but seeing that there was no dissatisfaction on Zhang Jimin's face and that he didn't seem to have any intention of leaving the "Huitian Group", they felt much relieved.

Sun Fumin tossed Jiang Ning a cigarette: "Xiao Ning, what do you say?"

"Continue the research!"

Jiang Ning answered calmly.

Then, he looked at Zhang Jimin and said, "Old Zhang, I still need to trouble you to finish compiling the global sleep report as soon as possible."

After saying this, Jiang Ning paused and looked at everyone:

"There is no single right choice; we can only try our best to make our choices right. If we follow this path to the end and find that it's wrong, it doesn't matter. We can just consider it as eliminating a wrong option for scientists."

Zhang Jimin nodded, without saying anything more.

He wasn't against continuing research in this direction, but rather wanted to subtly remind Jiang Ning.

If the world's regression is indeed caused by sleep problems, how will they announce this result, and how will they face public scrutiny?

Most importantly, according to Jiang Ning's plan, after these data are collected, they will conduct a "major experiment," which, if exposed, may face widespread condemnation.

Zhang Jimin didn't know if Jiang Ning had understood his hint, or perhaps he had, but he didn't seem to care.

"Oh, right, we're going out for a bit later."

Upon hearing this, the others were puzzled and looked at Jiang Ning with curiosity.

Jiang Ning stood up as he spoke, a rare smile appearing on his face:

"Consider this a day off. Everyone can go and hand over your work now. We'll meet back here in half an hour..."