A rumpled cream pillow stands beside a small alarm clock under a slanting beam of golden light.

Original artwork, not a still

John Steinbeck

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.

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

The speaker observes that a problem that seems stubborn at night often looks solved by morning. Sleep is playfully imagined as a committee quietly working through the difficulty, suggesting the mind keeps sorting things out while we rest, so solutions arrive without deliberate effort.

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