vinnyq
October 24, 2001, 9:45pm
1
I am curious about “sleep” as an evolutionary function:
Does plant sleep? Does virus or bacteria sleep? Seems only animals need sleep.
Why do we need sleep? Is there any actual proven scientific explanation? A way for the brain to process information, to rest the brain, to rest the body?
How long can a human go without sleep before any fatality occur?
What’s the world record for the longest number of days a person had went without sleeps?
vinnyq
October 24, 2001, 10:05pm
2
From SeatleTimes.com
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/news/health-science/html98/slep02m_20000502.html
In the Dark about sleep? Facts may shed some light
Why do we sleep?
It is a commonly accepted idea that sleep performs a restorative function, said Landis, “but we don’t know what it restores.”
Sleep helps regulate how much energy we expend and stabilizes our body temperature. In a basic evolutionary sense, it keeps us out of harm’s way.
But sleep also presents an evolutionary conundrum: We must sleep to survive, but when we sleep, we are vulnerable to predators. Sleep was likely more important for our chances at survival so we found places and ways to do it safely.
Another theory on the value of sleep involves our synapses, the electrical connections between our nerve cells.
That sure didn’t help me much.
What happens if we don’t sleep?
“The biggest consequence of sleep loss is being sleepy,” said Landis.
This is no joke. After 24 hours without sleep, it is almost impossible to stay awake unless one is physically active or physically motivated.
“My hunch is that they have some kind of cardiac event, but we really don’t know,” Landis said.
What about human?
[fixed coding]
[Edited by bibliophage on 10-24-2001 at 07:56 PM]
There’s a survival aspect to it too; once the animal has finished eating and squirting it’s sperm around, it can be advantageous for it to hole up somewhere (diurnal animals would be at particular risk in the night time).
vinnyq try this site , it seems to be a bit more scientific, yet still easy to follow, than the one you quoted.
“Sleep that knits up the raveled sleave of care” - Macbeth
A search in GQ should turn up previous threads on this subject.
Cecil on Why do we sleep?
fatal familial insomnia
In the case study of an Italian family where of 288 relatives over 6 generations, 29 are affected by the disorder. The average age of onset of the disease is 49, but this may vary with the individual as with one female who was 61 years of age. Her disease lasted 18 months and followed the following pattern of the disease.
There are four stages of the disease before an individual’s life ends. The first stage is progressive insomnia, the trade mark of fatal familial insomnia. The first stage develops over approximately four months and includes a collection of psychiatric problems such as panic attacks and bizarre phobias. The second stage includes hallucinations, panic, agitation and sweating and lasts about five months. The third stage lasts about three months and is total insomnia with weight loss. The individual at this point looks much older and may experience incontinence. The fourth stage is around six months long and is recognized as dementia, total insomnia and sudden death after becoming mute.
I remember reading that we (animals) sleep because we have been programmed to do so over the centuries. Before electric indoor lighting, what else could a beast do in the dark?
Mirage
October 25, 2001, 6:13am
7
It seems to me that, as our ancestors have been living in the wild for the last 2+ billion years, they would have developed phisological cycles to cope with the changing night and day. A physical ‘down time’ would concerve resources until the next active peroid came around, and so we evolved around this idea. By now sleep is such a part of us that doing without it would upset many regulatory functions which come to rely on it.
Bossk
October 25, 2001, 10:19am
8
This fails to explain the purpose of REM sleep, during which:
Regulation of body temperature becomes hindered.
Production of urine and the rate of blood to the kidneys slow.
Blood flow to the brain INCREASES compared to stationary conscious levels.
Breathing and heart rates become erratic.
Probably an odd evolutionary feature that piggybacked itself on the high-survival rate of large/complex brained individuals.
vinnyq
October 26, 2001, 6:59pm
10
Thanks rrowr. That helps. I found this passage from the “why do we sleep?” thread to be the most interesting.
Complicating matters is the fact that some people thrive on virtually no sleep. In 1973 British researchers reported on a 70-year-old woman who claimed she slept only an hour a night with no daytime naps. In one 72-hour test, during which she was under constant watch, the woman stayed awake 56 hours, then slept only an hour and a half. Yet she remained alert and in good spirits.
I would like to do a poll here. What is the longest number of hours you have ever stayed awake?
I stayed awake for 2 & 1/2 days straight (approx 60 hours) during one of the crunch time programming project in college.
That’s about the longest I ever stayed up without even a catnap, during my internship year. I got stuck with two back-to-back on-calls. I should have taken at least a few hours nap, but in youth we can be cocky. I was just about hallucinating towards the end of it, but I had the best damned restful sleep after the ordeal.
I do believe that the guinness book has the most days spent awake at 12. That is IIRC of course.
Derleth
October 28, 2001, 8:57am
13
*Originally posted by vinnyq *
Complicating matters is the fact that some people thrive on virtually no sleep. In 1973 British researchers reported on a 70-year-old woman who claimed she slept only an hour a night with no daytime naps. In one 72-hour test, during which she was under constant watch, the woman stayed awake 56 hours, then slept only an hour and a half. Yet she remained alert and in good spirits.
I would like to do a poll here. What is the longest number of hours you have ever stayed awake?
I stayed awake for 2 & 1/2 days straight (approx 60 hours) during one of the crunch time programming project in college. **
This is not the place for polls. If you would like to do a poll, please put it in IMHO.
Just read the forum descriptions on the main page and you’ll be fine.
