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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..."

8 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Napcaps by Cyno01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

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    "Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
  2. Without drugs better? by twilight30 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

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    -- Pavese
  3. Cool, but mostly useless? by Alsee · · Score: 3, Funny

    Probably would have useful applications for computer folk too...

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

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  4. 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)
  5. 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.
    1. Re:Pretend this works well, for a moment... by Da+VinMan · · Score: 3, Interesting

      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?!

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  6. They might consider ProVigil by vudufixit · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here is a story on ProVigil, a new drug Cephalon is testing.

    http://www.you.com.au/news/1377.htm

    Its primary usage is to treat problems arising from a lack of sleep, or drowsiness, provided they arise from a clinical problem and/or the treatment prescribed for it. However, it can also potentially be used to maintain an alert state for a long time, without the jitteriness of caffeine, or drowsiness of plain ol' sleep deprivation.

    I wrote to them a while back, asking to try
    some, citing the desire to have a "really
    productive day."

    They wrote back promptly, essentially saying
    that such a usage would essentially be
    misusage of their product.

  7. I take Provigil by jafuser · · Score: 4, Informative

    I take Provigil for EDS (Excessive Daytime Sleepyness), which it has been a remakable help for me. I haven't tried taking it at night or using it other than how it is perscribed, but if it can keep me awake through the afternoon without having to crawl under my desk and sleep, then I'd imagine it's pretty effective to avoid sleeping at night as well. The nice thing about Provigil is it doesn't seem to have a down side following the alertness.. It's just like you put off the drowsyness for a few hours, so I'm usually feeling at 7:00pm what I normally feel at about 2:00pm, not more tired (or in a sleep debt) as you'd expect with normal stimulants. The bad thing is the stuff is about $350 a bottle; over $10 per pill! But it's either take it and work full salary time at a nice office, or stop taking it and probably get fired for sleeping at work. =D

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