| While I doubt they did this for more than a few days at a time, I can totally see them doing this to help get through winters. I've had a couple of periods where I was flat broke and had food staples and a roof over my head but not much else in Canadian winter or two. That's essentially how I would pass a few days here and there to save money on food and expenses. I would sleep as much as possible, fast until around 8pm, and eat a cheap meal (e.g. bulk pasta and tomato sauce I made from marked down cans of tomato and froze), then back to bed. A lot of the time, if I couldn't sleep, I would read. This was pre internet and I didn't have a phone or tv. Days go by pretty fast like that (it was very, very cold out each time I did this and I had inadequate clothing for the weather so even a walk was not happening). Eventually, the next thing I had to do would come up and I'd get back to normal. For context, I worked in kitchens so work meant "free" food (my jobs paid very little) or a couple times I was in a cabin in the middle of nowhere waiting for the weather to clear so I could dig out and get my car in the road. Nice to do this when you have a good supply of stove wood and a good book. |
I've found this to be the case with COVID isolation and WFH. Not having any set work hours and nobody really even aware of whether I'm working or not, I'm sleeping a lot more (like 12 hrs/day) and not being very productive the rest of the time. This year has just vanished in a haze of sleeping and not doing much, a week can feel like a day sometimes.