Slashdot Mirror
Got Sleep?
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..."
When is someone gonna get around to inventing good old Napcaps from sci-fi. AFAIK REM sleep, when the brain switches to alpha waves is the most benificil, so a device that stimulates alpha waves would offer more value out of less sleep.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Methods already exist, without drugs.
Note that it's not without sleep altogether -- anyone see Jacob's Ladder ? Of course, they don't mention what a cursory search would turn up:
Polyphasic sleep
The 'Uberman Sleep Schedule'
Apparently Buckminster Fuller and Thomas Jefferson practiced variants of this, getting as little as three to four hours per 24-hour period.
========================================
Death will come, and will have your eyes
-- Pavese
I absolutely agree. If I were in a foxhole, I'd want this.
Well, if you're in a foxhole, you won't need it. Combat is way too stressful for people to just suddenly fall asleep. The real problem on the battlefield is the prolonged stress which causes lapses in judgement and concentration.
The other angle here you should think about is that most people in the military aren't 100% combat oriented. Like civilian life, the military needs a LOT of services that are not directly combat related in order to function. Examples: transportation (air, land, and sea), food/water supply, quartermastering. Those are the people who really feel the staff shortages and these are the people they'll drug first in order to get more work per day out of a single person. I personally feel sorry for the poor bastard who is forced to go on a sleepless regimen with the help of drugs just to cover a personnel shortage.
Make no mistake about it: this isn't just designed to give us a combat edge; it's designed to help keep the military functional and efficient in the presence of limited funding. But let's not talk about all the medical bills we as taxpayers are going to be paying to compensate the individuals we brain damage in the name of efficiency.
Criminy people.. start reading between the lines, will ya?!
Please mod this post only if you think others should/n't read this. I have enough ego^H^H^Hkarma. Thanks!