New Initiative Monetizes Sleep; Government Charges for Unconsciousness Time
Shanghai, China —
The Shanghai Municipal Government announced Thursday a “Productivity Maximization Initiative” charging residents hourly fees for sleep, with government implementing mandatory wakefulness periods throughout daily cycles and billing citizens for time spent unconscious and unable to generate economic value.
The program, reported by Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat‘s China correspondent, classifies sleep as “unproductive time” requiring taxation to offset lost economic output during rest periods.
“Sleep is waste,” explained Shanghai’s Productivity Director Wang Chen. “Citizens are unconscious, generating zero economic value. We’re charging them for lost productivity. Fair taxation.”
The taxation structure charges ?$5 per hour of sleep daily, automatically assessed via smartwatch/sleep monitoring apps. A typical 8-hour sleep costs ?$40 nightly, ?$1,200 monthly. Residents working night shifts pay simultaneously for work hours and for sleep taxation during mandatory rest periods.
A secondary initiative mandates “Mandatory Wakefulness Periods”: 6-hour mandatory wake windows every 18 hours, regardless of sleep need. Citizens cannot sleep continuously; enforced wakefulness periods interrupt rest patterns, reducing sleep quality while maintaining taxation requirements.
Sleep debt accumulates: citizens unable to complete sleep due to work obligations still face taxation on calculated sleep-hours-owed, creating financial incentive to remain awake despite exhaustion.
Sleep scientists note that reducing sleep increases health problems, cognitive decline, and mortality. Shanghai officials acknowledged this: “These are acceptable externalities of productivity maximization.”
A “Sleep Debt Forgiveness Program” allows citizens to pay ?$500,000 to forgive ?$50,000 in accumulated sleep taxation—consistent with other Chinese government forgiveness schemes.
Interestingly, narcolepsy patients (involuntary sleep) face higher taxation: they sleep uncontrollably, accumulating rapid sleep debt. The condition becomes financially catastrophic.
Health data indicates that sleep taxation correlates with increased worker illness, accidents, and mortality, creating economic cost exceeding taxation revenue by approximately 340%.
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SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/