(Probably Found) Humans don't sleep

[TomMazanec]

Short Story or novelette in last 25 years.
World where humans do not sleep. Protagonist is knocked unconscious and buried alive, but escapes coffin and grave...family thinks he is a demonic zombie now. Most of the story is about a doctor's attempts to introduce anesthesia.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

This is "Sleep and the Soul" by Greg Egan (Asimov's, September/October 2021.)

My review for Tangent Online:

https://tangentonline.com/print-bi-monthly/asimovs-september-october-2021/

“Sleep and the Soul” by Greg Egan takes place in the United States in the first half of the Nineteenth Century. In this version of the past, however, people do not sleep, and any form of unconsciousness is considered to be equivalent to death. The protagonist is knocked out in an accident and is buried. He manages to escape from his coffin, but finds out that his parents think of him as a demon wearing their dead son’s body. He leaves his home with the woman he loves, taking on a new identity in an attempt to avoid the mobs who would destroy him as a monster. He goes on to become involved with a showman and a dentist experimenting with anesthesia.

The author’s portrait of the 1850’s is entirely convincing, making the story’s fantasy content believable. The implications of the premise are developed in a thoughtful, logical manner.