If you could eliminate your need for sleep, would you do it?

In My Humble Opinion
21

Add me in to the people who are baffled there are other answers. Of course I’d take it, in a minute.

With my newfound 8 hours, I could work a second job, or actually have a hobby, or finally write that book, or have time to cook nutritious meals for my family, go to the gym regularly, whatever. I’d take not having to sleep over any other gift, including infinite money. I’d be happier, healthier, a better family member, and more productive.

Perhaps more importantly- I never get sleepy? Ever? Please, let this be real! By the end of the day (and often well before), I am typically completely exhausted, barely able to function. It has a spectacularly negative effect on my quality of life. If I could be awake and alert and refreshed all the time…honestly I can’t think of anythingbetter than that.

22

Absolutely not. I love sleeping and I love dreaming. I have very vivid dreams so it’s like I have two lives. One awake life and one sleep life.

I really don’t understand those who think of sleeping almost as a chore, but I guess the gusty bus ain’t not disputandible.

23

I like sleeping too much to give it up, so I wouldn’t take the pill.

Now the pill I would take is one that eliminates the need to eat. I could still nibble when I chose (give up chocolate? are you nuts) , but the whole grocery shopping/cooking/moldy leftovers thing would be a distant memory.

24

Can I take half a pill and only need 4 hours a night?

25

One time and once you take it, you can’t go back.

26

For those who don’t seem to have enough hours in the day - how many hours per week are you working and commuting? I work full-time and I’m raising a 15 year old girl.
I still find time to cook healthy meals, get somewhat regular exercise, read, go on the net, draw, go on scooter rides, spend quality time with my guy, play with the cat and get things done around the house. I am tired at night, but not so exhausted that I can barely function - and I am not so young anymore. I usually only get 5-6 hours of sleep in a 24hour period, but that’s what my body needs. Sure, I could use those 5 hours to do more of what I already do, but I don’t feel that I need to. For the most part, I get done what needs to get done and I still have free time for some fun and leisure. So why not have a few hours of shut eye? And with that - it is 12:50a.m. PST and I work at 9a.m - time to sleep.

27

I definitely would. In fact this very idea occurred to me the first time I was rostered on night duty. Imagine how much I’d be able to achieve if I could work night shift and have all my days for myself. Bliss!

28

Leave the house for work at 7:30 in the morning get back at 6:15 PM. I commute by train, so I can read and it’s not that bad.

I have a two year old that needs more or less constant attention until 8, and I really need 7-8 hours of sleep to feel my best, which puts me asleep around 10:30.

That gives me 2.5 hours in a weekday to maintain my home, do stuff like laundry and bills, spend time with my husband and wind down. Usually at that point I’m too tired to even think about doing things I enjoy.

29

If you gave the pill to me, just me, I’d take it, as much as I enjoy sleep, the ability to do 8 hours per day more of the things I actively enjoy would win out. However if you presented the pill as a schematic and asked me whether to present it to the world, no fucking chance. The new normal would probably become 60-70+ hour working weeks and fuck that.

30

No, thanks. I enjoy sleep too much.

But can you start working on a pill where I don’t have to work?
mmm

31

I’d like to be able to choose when I sleep - so a pill that is a one-time deal would be a tricky choice - I typically only get about 5 hours a night and I could do with more spare/productive time - if it came at no great cost.

But there are times when I do actually enjoy and cherish sleep - for example when I’m unwell, sleep is a blessing.

So… not sure.

32

Hell no. I could see taking it on occasion for a hard deadline or whatever, but never sleeping again would be torturous. Besides the fact that I consider sleeping to be a pleasure, I just don’t see how people can justify giving up sleep by saying they need more time. Everyone who ever lived had to sleep, even the ones who got a lot of amazing things done in their life. Yeah, I might be able to get a bit more done if I didn’t sleep, but chances are, if I suck at prioritizing the time I have now, what makes having more time any better?

I could give up some of my time watching TV or whatever to get more done, but if it were THAT important to me, I’d make time for it as it is. As I’ve found, when I’ve had lots of time, particularly when I’ve had difficulty sleeping, that extra time doesn’t suddenly get filled with productivity, most of it gets wasted. After all, even if I could suddenly make use of that extra time better than I do with the time I have now, I’ll still get tired, clearly not in the sense of needing sleep, but just in getting sick of doing whatever I’m doing.

What I strongly suspect would end up happening is I’d have pretty much just as much time as I do now for the things I want to do, except I’d now have a few more hours in the day I need to fill with some other activity. Yeah, maybe a little of it would be somewhat productive by picking up a new hobby or whatever but, again, if it were something I wanted to do, I’d make it happen now. So I suspect most of it would be pretty boring after I got through the first couple weeks or so and had caught up on films I hadn’t seen, books I hadn’t read, etc. Chances are, after seeing how it all shakes out, I could carve out 6-8 hours of that new schedule of stuff that isn’t that important.

So, if I’m going to need to take breaks from work and from my other interests and hobbies, or if there’s still a few hours of time I’m just filling because it’s there, why not spend some of that time sleeping? Again, not only is it one of life’s greatest pleasures, there’s also dreams. It’s like a wonderful reset button, where a miserable day can just be separated from the next, and each morning is it’s own fresh start. If anything, I regret that I have too much to do and it’s difficult to carve out as much time as I’d like for sleep, though that’s more a function of how the world wants to make me stay awake all day and sleep just at night rather than in two or three chunks through the day.

33

It’s not necessarily about adding hours of productivity for me. It’s about adding hours. Yeah, likely I’d spend most of them doing nothing more productive than the time wasters I currently enjoy. But that’s why I do them now…I enjoy them. So I’d like to do more enjoying of them.

But it’s really the not feeling tired that’s appealing. I could, if I didn’t feel so tired, work more hours. My hours are mine to choose, but I’ve learned how many I can do in a day before my work gets sloppy because I’m too tired to focus.

I enjoy my work immensely when I’m not tired…so my extra hours would likely include both more work (= more money) and more time wasting.

And more sex. So much more sex.

34

In the American Dad! episode where they did this I think it wasn’t so much having more time as it was having quite time away from distractions.
If you’re the type of person that already does what you like this would be a great thing.
For me lately it would probably be time that on average might be just a little less wasted.
I’d rather have a pocket universe I can pop into for a few hours while time outside stands still. Maybe take a nap in there.

35

No, I’m glad that there’s some stuff I don’t have to think about for eight hours a day.

36

Nope. I enjoy sleep. I enjoy dreaming.

37

I have never been able to sleep enough, and it has affected me. I’d take the pill even though I love to sleep. If they made a pill that would put me to sleep without undesirable side effects I’d take it without hesitation.

38

Every once in a while, I am thoroughly done with the world. At such times, sleep is more than welcome.

39

I would be tempted. There is so much I want to do and never find the time for. The question becomes could/would a lot of it work during hours when almost everyone else is asleep? I would have to ponder that one for a while before deciding for sure.

40

I’ve never been much of a sleeper, even as a teenager. It always seemed like wasted time to me, although clearly necessary to my body’s well-being. So you betcha ja, if there were a way to circumvent a need for sleep, I’d be all over it. I wouldn’t mind putting my feet up with a good book and having a ‘rest’ period, but that’s a different question.