--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: For a long time I used to go to bed…" description: "\"“For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say \"I'..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg" --- # For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when… ![“For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I'm going to sleep." And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I…” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg) > ““For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I'm going to sleep." And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a”” [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The mind continues to process and replay what it has read, blurring the line between waking thought and sleep. **In simple terms:** Thoughts linger after reading, affecting sleep. Key Takeaway Allow time for mental unwinding before bed. Themes memory reflection sleep reading consciousness Mood restless introspective Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - nighttime reading - sleep onset - mental fatigue - overactive mind Key Concepts Narrative immersion cognitive processing Questions to Reflect On - How can you create a mental buffer before sleep? - What rituals help separate reading from dreaming? A Different Perspective The lingering narrative can prevent true rest. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Books](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/books/) [Philosophy of Mind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/philosophy-of-mind/) [Sleep](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/sleep/) [Thought](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thought/) [Time](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/time/) ## Related quotes > [So here I sit in the early candle-light of old age-I and my book-casting backward glances over out travel'd road.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walt-whitman/so-here-i-sit-in-the-early-candle-light-of-old-age-i-and-my-book/) [Walt Whitman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walt-whitman/) > [“If you spend enough time reading someone else’s thoughts, after a while their thoughts begin to infect you. 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She made so little distinction between… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/for-her-fran-oise-wealth-was-like-a-necessary-condition-without-which/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Knowing does not always allow us to prevent, but at least the things that we know, we hold them, if not in our hands,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/knowing-does-not-always-allow-us-to-prevent-but-at-least-the-things/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Death is in truth an illness from which we recover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/death-is-in-truth-an-illness-from-which-we-recover/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-bonds-that-unite-another-person-to-our-self-exist-only-in-our-mind/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [...a writer's works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/a-writer-s-works-like-the-water-in-an-artesian-well-mount-to-a-height/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Then from those profound slumbers we awake in a dawn, not knowing who we are, being nobody, newly born, ready for anything, the brain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/then-from-those-profound-slumbers-we-awake-in-a-dawn-not-knowing-who/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Art extracted from the most familiar reality does indeed exist and its domain is perhaps the largest of any.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/art-extracted-from-the-most-familiar-reality-does-indeed-exist-and/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, aplant,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/i-find-very-reasonable-the-celtic-belief-that-the-souls-of-our-dearly/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When you heard anyone in the middle of a talk which was being deliberately kept off the Affair announce furtively some piece of political…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-you-heard-anyone-in-the-middle-of-a-talk-which-was-being/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“We betroth ourselves by proxy, and then feel obliged to marry the intermediary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-betroth-ourselves-by-proxy-and-then-feel-obliged-to-marry-the/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“But the old lady on the contrary, far from justifying her daughter’s fears, felt every time someone of her own age “disappeared” that she…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/but-the-old-lady-on-the-contrary-far-from-justifying-her-daughter-s/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/often-it-is-just-lack-of-imagination-that-keeps-a-man-from-suffering/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When we are nice to others, we generally lose all claim to their respect.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-we-are-nice-to-others-we-generally-lose-all-claim-to-their/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Nobility is often no more than the inner aspect which our egotistical feelings assume when we have not yet named and classified them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/nobility-is-often-no-more-than-the-inner-aspect-which-our-egotistical/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) [Explore all 1,113 Marcel Proust quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## 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Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say \"I'm going to sleep.\" And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marcel Proust" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-early-sometimes-when-i-had-put/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Books" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-early-sometimes-when-i-had-put/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/8e3/marcel-proust-114_books_for-a-long-time-i-used-to-go-to-bed-earl_3137384.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“For a long time I used to go to bed early. 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