So I’ve just finished rereading Black Man (aka Thirteen in the states) which features genetically engineered people called hibernoids. They hibernate. So here is the premise:
You are awake 8 months of the year. During this time your body follows a daily cycle of high and low energy, but you are always alert enough to be doing stuff.
During the last month of waking you grow increasingly tired, before sleeping for 4 months straight.
Assume that you have employment suited to such a strange cycle, and that it is socially accepted.
So, what do you reckon? Would you prefer to get all your sleeping for the year done in one hit, or do you like your cycle the way it is?
I might go for it. Maybe. I wouldn’t like gong 4 months without knowing what’s going on around me (can hibernoids wake up and go back to sleep without difficulty?) and my significant other/kids would need to be hibernoids, too.
Mainly it’s because I currently need 12 hours or so a night of sleep, so 8 months awake-4 months asleep is a great improvement. I’d certainly get more done.
The advantage is skipping the worst part of winter. The disadvantage is that I oversleep. A few minutes a day isn’t going to be a huge deal in most cases but if it’s a month or two that might be an issue. “Sorry I’m late, boss, I could have sworn it was February not June.”
Suppose it’s like other animals. The holidays would be full of comments like “Eat more fudge and pie! You know you need to put on weight before we hibernate!” and so, you’d feel duty-bound to eat all sorts of fattening things between Halloween and Christmas. Then, right after the holidays, you’d sleep and never experience the fun of being frequently damp and too cold, nor trying to dig your car out of the snow so you can trudge to work, where you will stay until it’s dark out. And when you wake up come late April, you’re thin.
Well… from the book, the protagonist describes a hibernoid friend of his as a really tough guy, a PI who is always getting beaten up. “And he told me that no beating he ever took hurt as much as the time he dosed himself with that wake-up shit.” So it can be done, but not easily.
I’ll say no. Unless you want to. You probably would have some sort of monitoring equipment, keeping you from, you know, dying. This could keep you fed/hydrated, as well as wake you up at the right time.
You can choose the timing, so if you want to sleep through winter that is easily done. You can even change your sleeping pattern, but that is expensive and, I assume, leaves you with months-long jetlag, so choose wisely.
I’m three quarters of the way there already. I have a whomper case of Seasonal Affective Disorder. Before I knew what it was, and how to deal with it, I found myself sleeping 16 hours per day in the winter.
Before I answer, let me first congratulate you on your fine taste in reading material. Richard K. Morgan ROCKS (except for Market Forces but hey no one is perfect).
Personally, I like sleeping a bit each day or two. Being awake all the time gets boring, and I wouldn’t want to deal with the muscle atrophy, bed sores, etc. that hibernating would bring.
If we didn’t have to sleep approximately one third of each day, I think we’d be expected to work rather more than one third of each day. I don’t mind working long hours occasionally, but not every day.
This is my answer. I usually get SAD; winter is so hard for me. But I have kids, so sleeping through the winter wouldn’t be an option. Unless it were a family thing!
I don’t need no stinkin’ genetic engineering and I do hibernate!
OK, this year it’s not being so bad: I “blame” the daylight lamp I bought. But seriously, around Christmas I can sleep 10-12h any day and not really wake up during the rest.
You probably would have some sort of monitoring equipment, keeping you from, you know, dying. This could keep you fed/hydrated, as well as wake you up at the right time.