«اِلسَّهْرَانْ لِيلُهْ طَوِيلْ وِالنَّايِمْ لِيلُه غَمْضَهْ»

How long a stretch of time feels, not how long it actually is, depends on the state of the one living through it. A person kept awake counts every hour and finds the dark endless, while someone asleep notices nothing and finds the whole night gone in an instant.

The saying itself names no cause for the wakefulness. By extension, it observes that suffering, worry, or waiting can draw time out, whereas ease and unawareness compress it. It can gently note that those at rest rarely grasp how heavy the same hours weigh on someone who cannot find relief.

Fits moments when someone remarks on how slowly a sleepless night passes compared with the easy rest of others, whatever keeps them awake, or more broadly when contrasting how hardship stretches time while comfort makes it vanish.