Hygge isn’t for everyone. I personally don’t understand how what is essentially a Pinterest board made up of 98 percent Anthropologie leads to better health and happiness. (There’s a good chance I have misinterpreted hygge.) But just as I thought we’d moved away from the aggressive application of pillows, it reenters the zeitgeist in the form of a late-addition song to Frozen on Broadway. Safe to say peak hygge has been met and exceeded.

If collective cozying is also not your speed, there’s a new Scandinavian lifestyle trend in town that may be. Rather than focus on the aesthetic presentation of well-being, it involves drinking at home in your underwear. Actually, that’s all it is. Päntsdrunk is the Finnish self-care phenomenon in which you remove your pants—at home—and drink. Kippis! (That means cheers.)

Actually called kalsarikänni in Finland, which translates (much more logically) to underwear drunk, this is a for-real pastime so legit the country’s ministry of foreign affairs included people drinking in their underwear in an emoji pack that represents Finnish culture. (A man in briefs with a beer for him; a woman sipping red wine in a pink teddy set for her.) In his new book Päntsdrunk: The Finnish Path to Relaxation, out June 5, author Miska Rantanen has translated the concept for Americans.

Since it’s all about a relaxation so deep it can’t be achieved with pants on, the name itself is a bit of a clunky translation. “Päntsdrunk” sounds like it refers to the feeling a woman gets when purchasing a perfect-fitting pair of trousers right off the rack. And no one needs a word for that, because it never happens. Although, maybe it does in Finland, where they have thought of everything, including unemployment insurance that lasts 500 days, nationally subsidized health care, a play-based education system that actually works, not having a megalomaniacal admitted sexual harasser as president, and drinking pantsless at the end of a long day if all that isn’t good enough.

In his book Rantanen explains that the couch-and-booze habit developed as something of a coping mechanism for people in Finland who already spend a lot of time home alone thanks to what meteorologists have termed the “polar night,” a punishing winter season during which the sun rarely rises above the horizon and late-fall snow doesn’t begin to melt until June. Socializing involves far too much being out of doors and a terrible amount of clothing wearing. I get it.

America is experiencing something of a dark time too. Life is getting harder to discern from dystopic fiction like Black Mirror or The Handmaid’s Tale. Being left to drink in peace is the height of privilege. Päntsdrunk may just be the perfect place to begin emulating our highly evolved Finnish friends.

Judith Newman wrote in The New York Times in February 2017 that the political morass following the 2016 presidential election explained why Americans had latched onto hygge—or cuddle puddles with snacks and good lighting. “I think that at the moment of a huge swing toward right-wing populism and every-man-for-himself, many readers feel wistful about a culture viewed as a liberal utopia.” And hygge was a delicious, multisensorial utopia full of Fair Isle sweaters, cups of hot cocoa, and candles by the fireplace. (Proper hygge ambience calls for several things to be burning; you could use the First Amendment if still trying to do this in America.)

Will päntsdrunk take off the way hygge did? It’s certainly more seasonally appropriate—this is definitely the time of year to disrobe and drink sweating cans of rose, but one need only add socks and switch to a toddy to winterize it. You can bring whatever snacks you like, and watch TV, cling to your phone, or not. It’s a no-judgment zone (unless you judge yourself, but try not to!). Another benefit to päntsdrunk is there’s absolutely nothing performative about it. Where hygge is lighting a candle and capturing a photogenic image of how great everything’s going, päntsdrunk is coming as you are, letting it all hang out. If it didn’t already have its own emoji, it would be the shrugging one. The day is over; you’ve done your best (or maybe you didn’t). Now take off your pants and have a drink.

Moving on to päntsdrunk from hygge is the Scandinavian self-care equivalent of calling your psychiatrist to say “These drugs aren’t strong enough.” Forget the pillows. Forget the yoga pants—dispense with pants entirely. It is time we sit on our couches in underpants and drink to the promise of things getting better, somehow, on their own. Eventually. Say, in November.

Päntsdrunk: The Finnish Path to Relaxation is available for preorder, and on sale June 5.

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