If an average person sleeps an average of 8 hours a day, he will waste 1/3 of his lifetime doing absolutely nothing. Can you imagine how productive and advanced humans would be if sleep was not necessary? Imagine if einstein had another 1/3 of his lifetime to develop new theories and inventions…
Of course the human body needs rest and we all become grouchy and irritable but is it possible for someone to just stop sleeping once and for all? Will the heart shut down from lack of rest or could the body become accustomed to the lack of sleep and function normally. Imagine how much smarter we would all be if we spent those 8 hours per day reading a book or anything else productive.
I have read that it’s the dreaming that is essential to us. I have absolutely no cite for that and I won’t be at all offended if I am proven wrong.
Studies on lab rats have showed that depriving them of sleep ultimately caused weakness, weight loss, and ultimately, death.
And Zoe, I remember reading somewhere this case study of a man who suffered brain damage from an accident. Apparently, he lost his ability to engage in REM sleep. Lived on just fine. So REM sleep, though an essential component of brain development in infancy, and a facilitator of learning later in life, does not seem essential for survival.
All I remember about the function of slow-wave sleep (non-REM) is that you can’t do without it indefinitely because it actually helps the brain recuperate.
As I recall, after going about 100 hours without sleep, most people will begin to exhibit psychotic symptoms…paranoia, hallucinations, etc. They’ll get progressively worse, too.
I’m curious, though…if going without sleep for long enough will actually kill someone…what would the cause of death be? Stroke? Cerebral hemorrhage? Heart attack?
There’s an awesome book called “Sleep Thieves” that I got on a bargain rack for $3 and it basically said that the longer you went without sleep, the more shuts down and eventually you die. It’s a good book though, and I recommend it…
It’s absolutely not possible.
Actually I heard that in ancient China people were tortured to death by not letting them fall asleep. No citation on that one.
Read Robert Schneiders Brother of Sleep. (An allusion to “Death is the brother of sleep”). The book was pretty famouse 5-6 years ago.
I didn’t think that sleep deprivation as a form of torture was limited to ancient China. If you search on “sleep deprivation”, you’ll find that it’s often used in wartime, with instances in Vietnam, Iraq. This page describes research into it and other interrogation methods by the US and UK governments.
It’s really not possible; paranoia, mental retardation, visual and auditory hallucinations and obviously extreme fatigue are all symtoms of sleep deprivation.
If Einstein hadn’t slept in an attempt to improve his efficiency, then he most likely wouldn’t have theorised anything of much sense/use at all.
I don’t have a cite for this, but I believe I read somewhere in the Guiness World Records that a man has not slept in over 20 years due to a disease and, well, he’s still alive and still not sleeping…granted he probably does rest his body often to make up for it.
Not a good way to go.
When a portion of the brain responsible for sleep is damaged, people stop sleeping, go mad, and die. Cause and effect? Uncertain, but forcefully depriving one of sleep seems to cause the same symptomatology.
Absolutely incorrect. While sleeping, the brain actually works out various problems presented to us during the day. The solutions to these problems are presented to us in the form of dreams. Even the dreams you can’t remember help you when you wake up the next morning. Subconsciously you have these solutions to problems stored in your mind and it makes it easier for you to solve them the next day.
While you are awake only the conscious brain is at work. But that is only a small sublet of what makes up a human mind, including the logical thought that makes up genius. A vast quantity of logical thought is created at the subconscious level, which you have no access to at all. These logical thoughts then transfer from your subconscious mind into the conscious one, where you can access them in the real world. It’s only while you are sleeping that this subconscious level is allowed to take control of the entire brain to do it’s work. Denying Einstein the ability to put his subconscious brain to work would most likely have left him a braindead zombie and he wouldn’t have developed anything.
Yes, it is possible to live without sleep. You can do it for days before they (1) go crazy and (2) die.
I don’t have a cite handy, but the general observation is that lack of sleep will kill a person far faster than starvation or dehydration.
Consider that delirium tremens is brought on by the the disruption of the sleep cycle through alcohol consumption.
There are people who claim to have gone without sleep for decades. There are also people who claim to have gone without eating for decades. Some of these people are probably entirely sincere. Denial and self-delusion are wonderfully powerful forces, and they can convince a person of all sorts of weird things.
We might hear some of these people who never sleep interviewed on the radio, if they didn’t forget to set their alarm clocks and miss their appointments.
While people commonly don’t realize it, it is actually very difficult to account for exactly when one sleeps, or for how long. Most people waken several times each night, but do not recall it in the morning.
A few years back I was treated for a sleep disorder and was kept at a sleep treatment center at a hospital for 24 hours of observation. As part of this observaton, I was supposed to attempt four fifteen minute naps.
I was later asked if I had slept during these periods. I had been observed by cameras, and I had multiple electrodes attached to me. I was able to say with absolute confidence that I had not slept during any of these attempts. In fact, I had slept for half of one the fifteen intervals, and another time I had been unconscious for nearly the whole time.
I don’t think the resting of the body or heart is the purpose of sleep. If you think about it, your body still has to stay alive and fight entropy while you’re sleeping, it just doesn’t have to move muscles as often. But in different stages of sleep your muscles do twitch often, especially your eyelids. Also, your heart still beats, but only at a slower pace. As I understand it, the main purpose of sleep is more of a mental thing. I could be wrong though, I’m admittedly not a physician.
So what does sleep actually do besides “resting” ? If I didnt sleep but also didnt push my body and mind… wouldnt that mean less sleep ?
I believe there have been a very small number of people who have been able to function just fine with very little sleep. I recall seeing a program about sleep in which a British man claimed he never slept. When placed under observation, it turned out he did sleep - about 15 minutes every few days.
To my way of thinking it’s the other 2/3 of the day that’s wasted.
Good night.
This may not be the best possible way to support your thesis. As great as Einstein’s contributions were, I’m not aware of any evidence that the reason he didn’t produce more was that he didn’t have enough time to do so.
ijhi
It’s up to you whether or not you believe it. I’m not sure myself. It’s plausible, but unlikely that he didn’t sneak a few winks here and there.
x hours resting with your eyes closed equals x hours sleep? I don’t remember what was in place of the x’s, but let’s say 6 and 2.
Read that somewhere, but always wondered if it were fact or fallacy?
Thanks
Q
Well dreams are nothing more than random firing of the electrical impulses of the brain. The brain then takes this randomness and tries to make sense out of it. This is why dreams tend to be rather symbolic.
From what I’ve read about four hours seems to be the least people can get. As you get older you do need less sleep, up to a point, then you go the other way. I volunteer at a retirement home and I found this to be true. Many of the elderly residents are over 80 and do fine with about 5 or 6 hours. These are all healthy people. The retirement center doesn’t have any really sick people, it’s not a nursing home.
The thing about sleep is the requirement is different. My personal observation is I do need about 8 hours. I’ve always needed this, though when I was younger it was easier to go without and make it up later.
You can train yourself to do with less sleep, though there is a personal point your body won’t let you cross.
There are so many theories of why people need sleep. One thing that is definately known is the immune system rebuilds during sleep. Muscles also grow during sleep if stimulated correctly when you’re awake.
These are small subtle effects but very real.
I’ve read about breaking world’s records for no sleep and you’ll find that the people after it is over, come out of it fine after a few days of make up sleep. So they seem to lose their mental abilities far quicker than it effects them physically.