Spending some time in Madrid, I marvel at the mornings. This is a city that sleeps late. When I first got here, I’d stagger out before 9am in search of coffee, and find the breakfast places still closed. Spaniards wake up at times when Americans are already at work.

I know Spain has sleeping problems: people here sleep 30 or 40 minutes less per night than the European average, possibly because they are in the wrong time zone. In 1940, the dictator Franco moved the country to German time to show solidarity with Hitler, and nobody ever moved it back. Yet Spain’s late mornings are what I’ve been looking for all my life. I always found that traditional school and working start-times forced me out of bed too early.

Many other people clearly feel the same way: during lockdowns, when homeworkers were suddenly able to choose their own wake-up times, most slept later. Let’s hope that the current revolution in working practices institutionalises that freedom.