The underestimated art of lying down. Everyone does it, yet hardly anyone talks about it: Bernd Brunner invites you on a relaxed journey through the world of lying down. We spend about a third of our lives lying down: we sleep and dream, love, think, doze, suffer, and recover. Nevertheless, lying down generally has a bad reputation and is equated with stagnation, passivity, and laziness. Yet the horizontal position is invaluable, offering moments of contemplation that often bring forth the best ideas. If Michelangelo had not surrendered to lying down, he might never have come up with the idea of turning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel into one of humanity's greatest works of art. Bernd Brunner's ode to lying down is both a profound cultural-historical exploration and an entertaining collection of stories. He approaches the horizontal.