I heard that sleep derivation can cause hallucination and nasty psychological, but what is considered sleep deprivation? I hardly ever get 8 hours sleep a night and I often get less than 5. I haven’t gone crazy yet. (At least I don’t think I’ve gone crazy.) Anyway, I have also heard that sleeping less is better for you than sleeping more. What’s the real deal? Am I jeopardizing my health by sleeping less, or will it help me live longer?
[Insert Clever Quote Here]
Sleep deprivation is considered going without sleep for twenty-four or more hours. At about 48 hours hallucinations begin, but very subtly. You may see movement out of the corner of your eye, but no nightmarish monsters. I did an experiment on sleep deprivation a few years ago and found that it makes you paranoid and irritable.
Sleeping less than eight hours a night isn’t really considered sleep deprivation. Some people need up to ten hours, some are fine with only five or six. Unless you are beginning to suspect everyone, or see cats pouring through the walls in your peripheral vision I don’t think you have anything to worry about.
“Man prefers to believe what he prefers to be true” -Albert Einstein
During my fraternity’s “hell week” I got about 8 hours sleep in 5 nights (5 hours were in one night). By the 4th day, I couldn’t concentrate, and could barely read. I never hallucinated though. I remember taking a test in life science where I needed to do some basic addition/multiplication, and couldn’t do it.
I was absolutely frustrated because I could no longer do general math.
I generally start halucinating at 40 to 50 hrs without sleep, so it does happen. It feels just like a high fever. (103.5 F or so.) Paranoia takes longer, though, since I know I am going to see things. I’ve never known it to start subtlely though.
The real problem these days isn’t with sleep deprivation but with chronic sleep deficit. That’s when one gets less sleep than one needs on a recurring basis, i. e., someone who needs 8 hours but only gets 6 accumulates a sleep deficit of 2 hours per night. Over time that can lower the effectiveness of the body’s immune system as well as contribute to stress-related illnesses.
My father in law suffered from sleep deprivation after his accident. He was in ICU and on a rotating bed that kept the pressure off his broken spine so his entire view was the ceiling and the heads of people that would suddenly appear and disappear (think of laying in the bottom of a row boat going back and forth and seeing the horizon come and go.)
Between all the machines that went
" Ping!" , the staff and visitors sneaking in to see him, it took him about 10 days of no deep sleep to start seeing…of all things… squirrels.
Ok, well I everybody know that not enough sleep makes you sluggish and cranky, and I have noticed that after extended periods without sleep that fine parterns such as carptets and cloth seem to crawl a bit. But if I sleep in for a day and I’m fine. Whats I’m more concerned about is any long term or serious concequences of sleep defecit. I’m also curiuos about the accounting method used to calculate this “deficit.” Obviouly if I miss 1.5 hours a day on average, I dont need to sleep for 4 months straight to for the my sleep bill is payed up.
In short, whats my credit limit, how high is the interest, and whats the full payoff ammout, can I overpay and deduct from the negative balance later?
Yeesh. Those typos are horrible. I think I need a nap.
If you want paranoia, combine your sleep deprivation with large doses of caffeine (higher than LD-50). Seeing nonexistent things in my peripheral vision was bad enough by itself, but combined with a severe case of the jitters, I was practically jumping out of my seat every minute or two.
–Rowan
Shopping is still cheaper than therapy. --my Aunt Franny