I remember hearing about this idea quite a while ago in a scifi story. I have no idea as to its authenticity. I was reminded by the “Intentionally Passing Out” thread, mostly because it seems like a not very good idea.
Anyway, the story goes: you put an electrode (forget which type) to the base of the skull. You put the opposite type on each eyelid. Run a light current through, and unconscious is achieved. Apparently, the Russians experimented with this with soldiers for a month or so and found that an hour under the plates was equal to a full night’s rest; that is, the soldier woke up and performed as admirably as if he’d gotten rid of his entire sleep deficit, no matter what his body’s needs were.
This would be somewhat useful to me as I have noticed that given its druthers, my body prefers to sleep around 9 hours a day. Mind you, I’m 18, and actually figured this out last summer. I often stayed in bed for 10 hours, but I would not sleep for more than 9, and unless woken up, never less than 8. I would then putter around for an hour or two and go off to work from 3 to 11 at night, return home and be asleep by 1.
I’ve tried sleeping less, but I always end up wasted for the first six hours of the day if I sleep less than six hours a day for more than a week or not at all for one night.
Mind you, I have not tried this sleeping plate thing myself. Is this a true story, or at least a reasonable idea? Or was the reason this was in a scifi story because it is science fiction?
<hmm> Right! I read about it first in Aasimov’s writing, I think. Then I heard a similar idea in Niven’s books.
Larry Niven makes reference to ‘Russian Sleep Sets’ in his short story The Locusts (in context of a group of colonists experiencing difficulty adjusting to the rotation period of a new planet).
He also makes reference to ‘Sleeping plates’ in one or more of the Ringworld novels, but here he is talking about an anti gravity device (Loius Wu prefers sleeping in freefall).
Well actually the Lucidity Institute has come up with a wonderful way to acheive lucid dreaming through a device similar to what you are describing. In fact I purchased one and it works wonders. Basically, it detects when you enter REM sleep. Then it shows a breif red light – not enough to wake you up – but enough to wake you in your dreams. Its great!
In one of his books, GRU defector Victor Suvorov mentions a technique he learned in his days as a Soviet spy. He says that deep sleep can be rapidly achieved by learning to force your eyes into their most extreme “up” position.
I’ve tried it and it does seem to help me nod off when I’m having trouble getting to sleep, but I don’t get up an hour later to see if I feel rested already.
There was an interest in this technique at the time that Niven and Asimov were putting it in stories. Look around under “electrosleep” or “Cranial Electrotherapy Stimulation”. A lot of the articles on it date from the 60’s and 70’s. It’s still around as an “alternative therapy” for insomnia, alcoholism, and various other conditions. Not as a substitute for sleep, however. The modern form simply has you clip electrodes to your earlobes.
