A Hymn to Lying Down, composed by Bernd Brunner, is a deep, meaningful cultural-historical study—and at the same time a collection of captivating stories. About a third of our lives we spend lying down: in no other position does a person think, dream, and love so much. And yet for many people lying down is met with disapproval; it’s often confused with passivity and laziness. At the same time, a horizontal position is extremely valuable, because it often leads to the most interesting ideas. If, for example, Michelangelo didn’t spend so much time lying down, he probably wouldn’t have come up with the idea of turning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel into one of humanity’s greatest masterpieces.