This might sound odd, but is there anything that is similar in effect to sleep? It would be very convenient if I could simply skip a night yet still refresh my body and mind in the same way that sleep does. A drug perhaps? I want to retain clarity but still reep the benefits of sleeping… is this feasible?
No, but if you invent it, you’ll make millions.
If there were a way to reap the benefits of sleeping without having to waste eight hours a day, I doubt that very many people at all would sleep, and you certainly wouldn’t see it only in the back pages of cheap magazines or on 3 am infomercials.
I will assume that what you say is the absolute truth; that nothing currently exists that can reasonably replicate the benefits of sleep, so I guess I will just ask another question…
Theoretically, is this possible? What would ‘simulating’ sleep involve? Is there enough information available about this subject to even theorize? After doing a few internet searches I have found such information lacking, to say the least. If anyone knows any good sites with lots of sleep related info, please HOOK ME UP.
Also, one last question. I have been awake for (approaching)40 hours and I am wondering how much my cognitive abilites have degraded due to lack of sleep. I am certainly not feeling fully operational… is it a bad idea to do anything intellectually taxing today?
nah , but then sleeping is a favourite past time i have
you could always do power sleeping at 20 minute sessions
at work during breaks as you donot fall into REM sleep and
you are not groggy when you awaken , course the desire to not get up make not make the 20 minutes seem long enough
heh the best cure for insomnia has always been the morning
when you have to go work
as a teen i stayed up 8 days and fell real sick from it
cannie remember why i did it but i was a dumb teen like we
all were at one time or another
There have been some stories in the news recently saying that frequent jet lag (i.e., lack of sleep) reduces intelligence over a lifetime. I wouldn’t risk it, man. Stay up three nights in a row, and it could be Flowers for Algernon time.
I fair while back some friends of mine and I were interested in a device dubbed “The Russian Electrosleep Machine.” In theory this device would induce a sustained REM type sleep in a manner of minutes. The idea was that in about two hours of electrosleep you would get all the REM you needed and if you spent a few more hours physically resting (reading books or any other none active pursuit) you were good to go. Now the potential advantages of only spending two hours a day unconscious are attractive, but the potential hazards of hooking electrodes to your eyelids and behind your ears were daunting.
One friend even acquired a schematic and US parts list for the machine. I was the closest thing the group had to an electronics expert (several years of high school electronics and a summer job soldering circuit boards), and I did think I could get the thing assembled, but I totally lacked the equipment to tune and test the square wave and variable pulse generators. Suffice it to say I never felt competent to test such a device on myself or another person should we have ever built it.
A quick check on google shows the idea never truly died out, but I do suspect that if the machine did live up to it’s promise it would be available for sale at every circuit city.
There are devices that have headphones and glasses with leds in front of your eyes, controlled by a computer. They make rhythmic tones and flashes (thru your closed eyelids) that are supposed to affect your brainwaves and create some sort of meditative or hypnotic effect. My friend had one, and I tried some of the many settings. It did have a relaxing effect. Not a replacement for sleep, but I suspect it would help you fall asleep faster.
You might want to do some research on this sort of device. Unfortunately I don’t remember what it was called.
Kalashikov, I’ve seen things like that as well. A quick search found an example. I must say that useing light and sound seems a whole lot safer than passing a modulated electric current through your skull like the device I described.
As a person who worked 10 years on the night shift (11-7) I can tell you, your body will produce a sleep deficet. Until you make that up you don’t feel right.
I have read article in Pschyology Today which confirm this.
For example I would get three or fours hours of sleep Sunday thru Thursday but on Friday my day off, the whole day was shot as I need about 9 hours a day.
Now remember not everyone needs the same amount. Researchers have shown people getting by nicely with 5 hours a day. And as you grow older you tend to need less sleep.
But whatever your normal sleep pattern is rest assured you will make it up eventually.