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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..."

3 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. 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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    Death will come, and will have your eyes
    -- Pavese
  2. 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)
  3. 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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