Th e sleep test . . . is supposed to tell people whether
or not they have made a morally sound decision.
In its literal version, a person who has made the
right choice can sleep soundly afterward; someone
who has made the wrong choice cannot. . . . Defenseless literally and more broadly, sleep-test
ethics rests on a single, fundamental belief: that
we should rely on our personal insights, feelings,
and instincts when we face a difficult problem.
Defined this way, sleep-test ethics is the ethics of
intuition. It advises us to follow our hearts, particularly
when our minds are confused. It says that,
if something continues to gnaw at us, it probably
should.