When I first heard about this show (UK TV, channel 4) I was all enthusiastic. It would be fun to see what happens when a group of people have to stay awake for 6 days.
Then I heard that they get a ‘sleep allowance’. Thus endeth my enthusiasm.
It is PLAINLY NOT sleep deprivation if they get, you know, SLEEP!!!
Fuckbollocks. Rant over.
I half-agree with you. I was looking forward to this too, and was a bit pissed off when I heard that thy’re were going to get 2 hour naps every day–not exactly scientific, i thought!
Then again, I don’t think the show would’ve lasted 7 days if they hadn’t been allowed said zzzz’s, given the way some of the contestants were deteriorating early today.
Also, ‘Touch The Truck’ (C5) did it rather more rigorously in 2001 (so it’s not unprecedented like Dermot kept saying), but the viewing figures were a bit crap!
[Stones Background Singers]SHATT-ered.[/SBS]
As a medical resident and thus an expert in sleep deprivation, I can say that a two-hour nap every day is about the worst thing you can do.
A 15-minute cat nap is enough to recharge the batteries, and 3-4 hours counts as a really shitty night’s sleep. Anything in between is worse than useless, because you get into a “sleep mode” from which you have to wake up, even though you didn’t get any real rest. If you can’t go for three hours (more like four for me), better to caffeinate and push on.
(Note that a 1-2 hour nap on a normal afternoon can be glorious. These guidelines only apply at those times when your body is really looking for 7 or 8 good hours of sleep.)
Dr. J
Don’t know if it’s easy to find over in the UK, but rent a documentary called Hands on a Hardbody if you can find it. It’s got people staying awake for over three days straight with no cheating. I imagine “Touch the Truck” mentioned upthread is about the same contest.
No, sounds like you’ll still be seeing folk with their brains turned to mush by lack of sleep, Lobsang. I wouldn’t put the boot through the telly just yet, mate.
When I was caregiving, I was lucky to get 2 hours at a stretch of sleep. I deteriorated rapidly.
These reality show pretty much suck, IMO. I would like to see something good, like putting a few guys in an arena with some lions and tigers (give them some swords and spears of course).
I saw about 10 minutes of this. big fucking brother without sleep.
Ker-rap!
give me 100 grand, I’ll show you exactly what sleep deprivations all about.
I like the gladiator lion & tigers idea though. add sharks and we’re all laughing.
Yeah, ‘Touch The Truck’ was a UK version of Hands On A Hardbody, held in a shopping centre, and for some reason presented by Dale Winton.
Plus they are a bunch of wankers - what was all that bollocks about “he’s lying because he’s looking up and to the right as he speaks” ?
I know… let’s do a reality show for methamphetamine addicts!
Nah, you dont want addicts. Itd be better with virgin users. Tell them they can either take nothing and win more money or take whatever you want from this pile of narcotics over here and try to win. If the non-doped person wins they get like twice what the doped up person would get.
NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming)
It is to do with a habitual response when asked a question you cannot immediately answer. It is believed that when asked a question, if the person looks up and to the right he/she is ‘creating’ an answer, if he/she looks up and to the left he/she is remembering an answer. Related to the hemispheres of the brain.
Right - being creative, imagining.
Left - Accessing memory, remembering.
I am sceptical myself, but when I made note of which way he was looking, I did guess right.
Andy looks up and to the left…remembers other TV stuff
I’m surprised you were optimistic that it even might be good.
I still think it’s good, but then I’m a sucker for a reasonably scientific reality show (i.e. not stuff like the Salon). IMO ‘Touch The Truck’ was way underrated.
re. the looking up and to the right thing–he wasn’t lying at the time!
Yeah, it’s believed - that is exactly the problem.
You have a very valid point. What was I thinking!
I don’t doubt that it’s possible to stay up for 7 straight days without chemical assistance, but I wouldn’t want to try it.
When I was in school, I once stayed up for (I believe) 52 straight hours to finish papers, study for tests, and meet school-related deadlines. Towards the end of my 2nd day, I’d be trying to type a quote, and I’d look at the quote, memorize a few words, then look at my fingers to start typing, and have forgotten the words I was typing, so I’d look back at the words, memorize the words, then look back at my fingers, and have forgetten the words I was typing, repeat ad naseum. After my 52nd hour, I was typing on my computer and suddenly realize that I’d fallen asleep, and my fingers were typing what I was dreaming. When I finally got home, I turned on the tube as I undressed, and the end of Pearl Harbor (the Ben Affleck movie/travesty) was on. I saw all the dead bodies floating in the water and literally burst into tears.
Jeez, I thought. So this is what it’s like to be a woman.
[Sorry, ladies. It’s a bad joke, but it seemed funny in my sleep deprived state.]
I personally think that it would be impossible to stay awake for 7 days without at least a short nap in between. I imagine that only people who are being forced to not sleep (ie. prisoners of war, captured spies, crack addicts) would be able to manage this, that is why the nap time is necessary as even the £100,000 would not be incentive enough to overcome the tiredness in my opinion. Having said that this show is utter shite, it would be much more interesting if they were to throw some chemical assistance into the mix as they would certainley go doo-lally much quicker but at the same time by completley incapable of sleeping and also would be rabbiting nonsense the whole time. My colleague at work also thought that a ‘Marijuana Olympics’ could be fairly amusing, they could hold it in Amsterdam to get round those pesky laws. Does anyone know if that would be legal to show in Britain? A show where contestants are made to smoke huge amounts of high grade weed then race each other through fiendish assault courses…
Y’know, I almost always look up and to the right when I have to think for a minute. In a way, I am creating an answer, because I tend to think about how to phrase things very carefully so as to be understood best.
So, even if you asked me ‘what did you do this weekend?’ or even ‘what did you have for lunch today?’ I would probably look up and right.