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Got Sleep?

Posted by michael on from the no-paid-overtime dept.

Whispers_in_the_dark writes "ABC News is running a story about how the U.S. Military is striving to find methods to allow soldiers to skip sleep without the ill effects associated with that sort of activity. Probably would have useful applications for computer folk too..."

4 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Random thoughts... by RyoSaeba · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...from my tired ('cause of inactivity) brain:
    • doesn't the body itself need to rest sometimes ?
    • what about the mind ? isn't sleep first a period of imagination & brainstorming, then something to relax the mind too ? could they 'emulate' that using drugs / TRM / you name it ?
    • isn't the very act of getting ready to sleep something enjoyable ? lie in bed, read some, then Zz. Of course for military & such it's not the same, but 'ordinary' people may just like that too much to go without sleep. And it makes for a nice cut in the day, too !
    • use DNA techniques to alter genes, sure, just need to devise a way to change all (relevant) cells of an adult, or else wait for the next generation
    • what about muscular tiredness ? suppose your drug / medicine / TRM makes you able to avoid sleeping, could you still do active like crazy for many many hours without needing to pause ?

    just my 2 cents of euro...
    *goes back to sleep*
    --
    Tsuyoikoto ha taisetsu da ne, dakedo namida mo hitsuyousa (Strength is an important thing, but tears too are necessary)
  2. Pretend this works well, for a moment... by dpilot · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Do we really want it to?
    Do you really want another 8 hours of your life to become that available?
    Who gets that time, you or your employer?

    For arguement, let's pretend for a moment that the sleep you miss is taken directly off of your lifetime. Use a drug and skip sleep for a year, take 1/3 year off of your life.

    Is your employer in a position to demand that you shorten your life in order to meet a schedule?
    What's appropriate compensation?

    I might not mind not needing to sleep, if the time gained were mine. But somehow I don't think things would work out that way.

    --
    The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
  3. Re:Cool, but mostly useless? by AragornSonOfArathorn · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, it would be good for soldier folk and computer folk. Too bad it's useless to everyone else.

    Um, lets see... truck drivers, pilots, police, just to name a few. Oh, and don't forget Quik-Stop clerks.

    --
    sudo eat my shorts
  4. Re:Built for speed by GeeKaLoT · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Speaking of military personnel on amphetamines, here are 2 Ottawa Citizen articles about the friendly fire incident in Afghanistan this spring that resulted in the deaths and injuries of Canadian soldiers when American fighter pilots fired on them. The pilots were taking speed though investigators from both countries don't regard the drug use as the problem.


    http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=ecfb8e2 7-2032-4cbc-b0ec-765bfa866ec7


    http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=a218f4a d-bd20-4439-b471-2c6d2b777aeb