Stardew Valley fan left their Switch running for 'over 3 weeks straight' to sleep for 1,000 years, waking up to immortal villagers, giant mushrooms and debris everywhere

It was only a matter of time until the cabin fever started setting in, I suppose, what with all the waiting for Stardew Valley's big 1.7 update and Haunted Chocolatier. It's a similar phenomenon to GTA 6, where the eternal waiting inevitably leads fans to become untethered and start doing wacky things just for the fun of it.

There's no finer example than Reddit user Holozard who, of their own volition (I hope), spent over 150 real hours sleeping for 1,000 years straight in Stardew Valley. That might sound like a massive waste of time (it is, really) but it was all for science. And it only gets worse when you realise what it took to achieve.

Slept for 1000 years straight from r/StardewValley

As Holozard explains in the comments, they had to leave their Nintendo Switch on "for over three weeks straight (aside from the nine times it crashed), just running right into bed and hitting rest."

And no, their controller didn't survive the month-long ordeal much better than I think my sanity would: "I used a controller with a turbo button to hit 'A' repeatedly, and a hair tie to walk right automatically. That also gave my controller horrible stick drift".

Naturally, sleeping for 1,000 years has some knock-on effects on your world, which Holozard aptly named Sleepwell Farm. I'm not going to question the impressive lifespan of the villagers or Holozard's merely "grumpy" chickens after so long in stasis, but there are massive mushrooms, meteorites, and so many weeds everywhere.

Yes, the fallout isn't restricted to the player's farm; this debris cluttered almost every tile in town, from the square and the Community Centre to Joja Mart, though the latter deserves it.

It all worked out in the end though, as once the sleepyhead Holozard arose from their slumber, it was time to cash in: "I now have lots of cool purple rocks all over my farm, and made almost half a million in mushrooms, so I’m happy".

That's a pretty good start to a save, if you ask me. I'm not sure the townspeople feel the same way, but they don't really have a say in it.

I'm never going to attempt such a feat, especially on a poor old Switch, but it's a neat experiment all the same. Honestly, I'm quite jealous of all the colourful mushrooms decorating the map.