The drug had been available to the higher class now for months, but just recently began being administered to the the less fortunate. The rich quickly became accommodated to their new sleepless nights, throwing lavished parties and enjoying every moment of fun their money could get them. Whereas the middle class and poor were left unsure of what to do with their new extra hours. The government was regulating the pills containing small energy level trackers; forcing everyone to take them and by the end of the coming month sleeping would be a felony.

 Atticus lied in his bed wide-eyed staring at the dimly lit ceiling of his drab apartment bedroom. In all honesty he had no idea why he was laying their when obviously he could have been actually doing something beneficial with his time. He had already binged watched all the episodes of the shows he had been wanting to catch up on. He watched plenty of filth that to his surprise only left him feeling empty rather than drowsy. He simply had nothing to do. 
 There was no point in going out since most companies hadn't yet adjusted to 24 hour schedules, and there was no way he was going to go to the cesspool known as Wal-Mart. He hoped soon that he would be able to pick up extra hours at the factory once they switched over to the new regulated schedule. 
 It had been an entire week since he slept for his last time and he could feel himself growing stir-crazy. he wondered what the point of keeping people like him awake was. Was it to allow companies to reap larger profits? in that regard it would suck to work for a mattress company now that they were nothing more than sex pads.
 Atticus closed his eyes but felt nothing. He wished his brain would just shut off. Stop thinking. Just for a moment. But to no avail his mind kept whirring with ideas, like maybe he should try taking drugs. Opiates probably could fill the void of sleep, but then he thought of how terrible his life would become. 
 His thoughts were interrupted by his alarm clocking blaring a gimmicky tune from the top forty. Six AM. Atticus shut it off. He figured he should probably get ready to head to the factory, since he had the rest of his life to figure out what to do about not sleeping.