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Drug Reverses Effects of Sleep Deprivation
Ryan O'Rourke writes "According to a study led by Dr. Sam A. Deadwyler and published by the Public Library of Science Biology, a new drug called CX717 developed by Cortex Pharmaceuticals has been shown to reverse the biological and behavioral effects of sleep deprivation. Tests performed on monkeys that were subjected to 30-36 hours of sleep deprivation revealed an average test performance accuracy drop to 63 percent, but that performance was restored to 84 percent after administering CX717. During normal alert conditions, performance accuracy of the animals was improved from an average of 75 percent to 90 percent after an injection of CX717. It is also believed the drug may help prevent or restore memory loss in Alzheimer's patients."
The 167 hour work week!
Here
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
I don't like this. Sleep deprivation effects are there for a reason, to signal that you need to sleep. I can understand if people who can't sleep and need to be alert need to use this (e.g. soldiers in combat), but it's not going to be very good for the average person who needs to do some more work. People need to sleep for various reasons (rest, various chemicals get regenerated, etc). It's not a whim of nature.
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"Simplify, simplify, simplify!" Thoreau
wuld it lt me imporv my tiping and speeling after 60 ours playing mmporgs?
The sea changes color, but the sea does not change.
...and now they want Slashdot junkies?
Fitzghon
Does this remind anyone else of that movie Project X with Matthew Broderick? Won't these scientists ever learn?
IANAL, but I play one on
If I stopped reading slashdot until 12:00AM that would help with my sleep deprivation, without the use of drugs.
I have a feeling most other computer users would find the same benefits from turning off their computers at 10:00PM.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
...we'll all be working 36 hour shifts.
But what are the effects on humans?
/. editors....oh wait...
well lets try it out on the
People in cars cause accidents....accidents in cars cause people
but People do need REM sleep on a regular basis for our conscience to rest.
Though I am sure there are many coders who would try it for a week to get that project done(aka MSFT forcing it on longhorn developers?)
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Guess this is a boon to me !!!
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Just like somebody else said in reply to the last article, I got a "Nothing for you to see here. Please move along." when I clicked on "Read More...".
ObSleep: I'm frickin tired. Also, I'm prone to bouts of CRS (Can't Remember Schitt). Wait, make that constant CRS. I forgot how bad I have it...
Maybe I could take this. I suspect that I really do get enough sleep and just fail to believe that I do.
Procrastination -- because good things come to those who wait.
I plan on bribing the researcher in injecting me too much of this stuff and then lown my cute neighboor's lawn.
Oh yeah, and then take over the world.
Grad students, rejoice!
How are those figures supposed to support the term "reverse"? Would not "mitigate" be the better term, since the drug just improves test performance, slightly more so when tired?
Fleur de Sel
...so i can make more money. ...so i can buy more cx717 ...so i can work longer. ...so i can make more money ...so i can buy more cx717 ...so i can...
Unfortunately meth has already been invented.
Yay those damned blue collar tweekers!
Methamphetamine?
The military is going to love this.
Expect Cortex's IP to be bought the us mil any second now.
Of course the real fun will be when they discover that taking this for months and sleeping 1 hour a night, you go insane and think your a humming bee.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I guess I can throw out those caffeine pills now. And the diet Coke. And the coffee. Well maybe not the coffee.
Finnaly! Now I can play WOW for weeks!
Watch, coffee and pop will soon have versions of with this drug and without this drug. Soon the human race will become dependant on this just as we are on caffinee.
I read somewhere that a significant biologic reason for sleep was simply that animals who laid down in a dark place for half the time had an evolutionary advantage over thos who didn't (it's about 50% harder to be eaten by a predator if 50% of your time your asleep)...
Rather than do the usual slashdot "Science is EViL" thing, why not really think about the potential here...
Yes, they will probably discover that over use of this has some serious side effect, but all that means is that it shouldn't be over used... It does not mean that we all need to run an hide...
For being a site full of geeks this place is remarkably anti science sometimes...
hard core geek-ware
I don't know, but that doesn't seem like a selling point to me!
Drugs like this end up messing up more than helping. A drug that can alter your normal biological functions (tiredness) and turn you more active cannot have good effects. You need sleep, simple as that. Maybe work should become more efficient instead of keeping people awake (or monkeys).
--gks
In related news, productivity at EA is up 44%.
and what are the side effects? Instant deaths?
did you forget to take your meds?
I had a Richie Rich comic book, and his dad took a drug EXACTLY LIKE THIS. And he became EVIL. No kidding.
Richie Rich: harbinger of the future.
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Your turn smart boy.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
I just find it odd that they were able to find monkeys that would volunteer for this experiment.
Because I'm guessing if it's cheap enough they'll start feeding it to Chinese factory workers so they can increase tat output by 100%.
What a tiresome story. The /. editors have obviously been caught napping.
It is nice to see that the all the research the US Army has done on its apache pilots is finally getting some civilian play. The military has been injecting its people for years with drugs that no one knows what they are, but a lot of it has to do with off-setting sleep deprivation to be able to perform longer missions more accurately.
-----
I was just thinking this morning as I punched in the old door combination for the hundredth time that it would be nice if that memory vanished a bit more quickly.
Your brain already does a pretty good job at figuring out what memories should be stored strongly and which ones should be left to fade away. It's almost certainly possible to override that mechanism, but you'll probably end up with incredibly vivid memories of things that aren't very relevant.
Imagine if I popped these pills before studying for organic chemistry in college. Now I'd be having flashbacks of acid/base interactions and other useless trivia while I try to go about my daily job.
Revision: "reverse [some of] the biological and behavioral effects of sleep deprivation"
This drug also increased test performance in the control group. The increase in test performance was slightly more pronounced in the sleep-deprived group.
Caffeine would likely show similar results, as would nasal decongestants and stimulant diet pills (both of which are amphetamines).
Hell, for that matter, I bet crystal meth, in low doses, would produce the same effect.
Meh, wake me up when the real fix for sleep deprivation is discovered... oh, wait...
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
"The body tell us its tired for a reason - it needs good healthy sleep, in order to keep you all in check. People who avoid sleep, people who keep themselves awake with drugs, people who burn the candle at both ends.. they are just setting themselves up for premature death. Just go to sleep!"
So what about those rare people who never sleep? What does that say about the necessity of sleep?
What about people who suffer from real sleep disorders, like narcolepsy and insomnia?
Oh good, now all those meth addicts can stay up for days without all those pesky shadow people.
I remember there being lots of research on how sleep not only helps with the maintenance of chemicals and neurotransmitters within the brain, but also with the formation of long term memory. Although debatable, our REM sleep stage is where our brain goes through and categorizes information, along with forming stronger connections between things that we learned or experienced during the day. If our REM sleep is circumvented, what would happen to our long term memory capabilities?
I haven't read TFA, but I suppose this new drug may help us in researching what the effect of sleep on long term memory really is. Since extended sleep deprivation ultimately leads to death, psychologists may be able to use this to form better hypotheses.
CX717 is a code word for Red Bull. The lab techs got caught giving monkeys some Red Bull to watch them dance all night and had to come up with a quick cover story.
Thanks to the Bush Administration's new extended hours for truckers, America's truck drivers will need an extra boost to keep them awake. Happy highway driving!
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
Unfortunatly i can't remember the name of the drug and i can't find the article again. Anyone have any idea as to what it might be?
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
SIGN. ME. UP.
Between a baby/toddler teething and my CIO position, sleep is something I hear about more than actually get.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Tests performed on monkeys that were subjected to 30-36 hours of sleep deprivation revealed an average test performance accuracy drop to 63 percent, but that performance was restored to 84 percent after administering CX717.
I am reminded of the famous line from Chappelle:
Cocaine is a helluva drug!
Not trollin', just sayin'...
I think they called it coke...
You know, i heard of this other great way to reverse the effects of sleep deprivation: they call it "sleep".
"What does slashdotting mean?"
"You've never heard of slashdot?"
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Women everywhere moan.... as their number two excuse, right after I have a headache, becomes scientifically irrelevant....
I'm too tired honey....
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Does anyone else find the idea of monkeys using a symbolic interface (using a cursor to select something) even equally as remarkable as the drug itself?
I really hadn't thought monkeys could learn that, maybe gorillas, but not monkeys.
I forget what I was going to put here... Can't wait for this to hit the market, I'd forget my own head if it wasn't attached.
I was reading all what yu were saying about the sleep issues, however, I think that the real issue is the Alzheimers thing. Anything like that is potentially good. Any company that 'ecourages' frug use as a conditon of employment should be nuked/
I have mod points and I am not afraid to use them.
...Mountain Dew?
I wonder if this drug has any effect on the body's sleep cycles beyond reducing the symptoms of sleep deprivation. If so, it could be marketed and sold to reduce the effects of jet lag. This would do wonders for international travelers. I'm looking forward to having some of this stuff on my next long trip!
What's wrong with premature death? I completely agree with the Seinfeld quote but there's another side to it. It's just sinister to let people think they'll be happy in old age. Depression, health problems, etc. Living longer is advantageous to everyone except the person doing the living.
Laws are for people with no friends.
I've been using this drug for years... its called bawls
I got nothin'
Actually, DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Projects Administration) is already funding some of the tests.
"
You could go to sleep at 4am and still be refreshed the next morning... Err... Afternoon."
I don't find that personally. When I go to sleep about 4 hours late at 4AM, even if I sleep until noon, the day never seems quite right. I think it has more to do with getting to bed at a regular time, and also getting enough hours to have a restful and rejuvenating sleep, than simply getting the hours in.
Just try being productive or creative on a day you got up after staying up past when you usually go to sleep.
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
One of the articles mentions that the research is being supported by the military, for pilots to be more specific.
16,777,216 comments ought to be enough for any forum!
has shown that crystal meth works just as good!
Everyone, I did some digging and found that this "CX717" is simply this.
More
If this drug eliminates the desire for sleep but not a physical requirement, it provides a test for the theory. See if people fall over dead after not sleeping for a while.
...is tomorrow's meth.
I remember the first time I read about Ecstasy in Time magazine.
They thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.
We must be alert to the danger that public policy could become captive to a scientific-technological elite. - Eisenhower
I think they just invented meth.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
The above post is an editorial, the poster cannot and will not be held responsible for all or in part for it's contents
I think it was called Cocaine back then.
I read the title as "Drug Reverses Effects of SHEEP Deprivation." I really need to get some sleep...
/* Insert some overused slashdot quote here */
Not only will we have wings, but the will have jet engines strapped to them
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
Must be the ones to start
To mould a new reality
Closer to the heart
Interesting when I match your sig to today's /. fortune cookie:
Everyone's in a high place when you're on your knees.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It is also believed the drug may help prevent or restore memory loss in Alzheimer's patients.
What drug is that?
More efficient monkeys! I took the grandkids to the zoo recently and the dang monkeys were only operating at 68% effectiveness. Stupid zoo. A little money spent on ex717 and those monkeys could easily have been an extra 15-20% more effective! Hmmmm, I imagine they'll need a bigger dose for the hippo though.
ANYTHING that tastes good, makes us feel good, makes us stronger, gives us a better memory or helps us concentrate or otherwise gives us any kind of advantage over someone not ingesting said drug is dangerous and must have hidden side effects. Some nutjobs might argue that a drug that might improve our memories dramatically and thus advance the productivity and technology of our civilization would be beneficical. However, any drug that does this is bound to be toxic, addictive, and otherwise damaging and even if it kills 1 person out of a million. Even if that one person who dies took thirty times the recommended dosage we must ban it because the only acceptable use of ingestible non-food substances should be to cure disease.
That being said, there is a horrible drug plaguing our streets known as 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine. It is lethal in doses as small as 3.2 grams. It is consumed compulsivley by a growing number of American addicts. It can cause psychomoter agitation, rambling flow of though and speech, tachycardia or cardiac arrhythmia. Large evil megacorps are trying to poison our childrens lives with them by getting them addicted to it early and it is even being distributed in schools by their dealers! Some people even say it helps them concentrate and lets them stay up longer but these benefits pale in comparison to the evils of this psychotropic drug. The Deaths piling up because of this drug should lead us to ban it immediately! We should also ban a substance often taken in conjunction with this awful drug known as DHMO.
At the moment we really don't fully understand as much about sleep as we could. Certain chemicals flow , other processes slow, and various 'maintenance' tasks initiate whilst our consciousness slumbers. While this drug may help by either replacing chemicals restored by sleep, or reducing chemicals removed during sleep... how about all the other functions of the body that depend on it. By taking a 'magic pill' to restore alertness we're taking a big risk of burning out other systems that just can't be fixed by anything except good, old-fashioned R&R.
Is CX717 an American drug companies marketing name for Meth. American drug companies are missing out on some major bucks not being able to market Meth. If they can give it a new name, have the Bush administration give them a green light in the name of free enterprise I'm sure it will be fine to start selling it over the counter or maybe at worst with an easy to acquire prescription. After all the government lets them sell Oxycontin, often with the drug company's full knowledge its going out the back door on to the steet. It is for all practical purpose legalized narcotics.
@de_machina
Finally, look for compounds in this class to be used to make people "better than well" for selected reasons
Yeah I'm waiting for a few years after that when they find the side effects from chronic usage.
Good diet and physical activity will make you better, and there are no known side effects.
I'm pretty sure this wonder drug (and the next) just like every other artificial booster will end up having a problem. There are no shortcuts.
Soon the human race will become dependant on this just as we are on caffinee.
So when do I get my sweet glowing blue eyes?
1) how do they know it's not addictive? 2) what are effects of long term usage? 3) how is it actually working? The last one scares me the most. Can get permission to use the drug before they know how it is working?
The Air Force I know was testing this on pilots two years ago to replace the use of Dexadrine (a controlled substance - and rather slightly addictive amphetamine) in pilots sustaining 30+ hour patrol missions.
A friend of mine who has cancer reported a varying effect, saying it felt like speed. On fire all day with energy..
Provigil is mainly prescribed for sleep apnea and narcolepsy and can sustain a person without sleep for up to 88 hours.
Timothy
I don't need to take drugs to sleep you insensitive cloud!
type the complete works of Shakespeare. Or half as much elapsed time.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Jolt Cola CX717 - The hacker's new best friend.
Zzzzzzzz
Flout 'em and scout 'em,
and scout 'em and flout 'em;
Thought is free. - Shakespeare [The Tempest]
20mg CX717 in the morning
30mg Ephedrine suppliments every 2 hrs
75mg Prozac to keep you sane
40mg Previcid to keep it all from being vomitted
Finish the day with a happy dose of 20mg Ambien
"Better Living Through Chemicals" I say. Who needs a stinkin' Food Pyramid!
The only PT Boat Journal on the web: http://www.PT171.org
One of the anecdotal rules for people with bipolar is to maintain a consistent sleeping schedule. Both when a person is depressed and when they are manic, it is evident that there are circadian rhythm shifts/problems. There is also a strong correlation between sleep deprivation and the probability of triggering another hypomanic or manic episode. It has been reported that between 25 and 65% of people experiencing a manic episode had a disruption in their sleep wake cycles prior to the episode. It would be interesting to know how this kind of medication would affect people these people.
:(
Too bad I'm a part of this group. It sucks.
On a more serious level I would agree. I was joking about the unemployement part and staying up and playing WoW, I haven't been unemployed for a long time for about 4 years now, but I do miss not being able to sleep whenever I want to when I was and back then I was playing Ultima Online and not Wow, but...
I think that it might be genetic, habbit, or enviorment related with when one does their best work. I find myself geared up in the Afternoon rather than the morning, but mostly because most of my prior jobs were late shifts such as 2pm to 11pm at night kind of range which led me to either learn to be personally productive after work at very late hours.
I think there was a study done on people who perfer to do mental work in the morning, afternoon, or late at night but I can't remember what it concluded but there seems to be a difference between most people.
"I am the king of the Romans, and am superior to rules of grammar!"
-Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor (1368-1437)
Check this out: 7 + 1 + 7 = 15, reversed: 51, 51ST STATE!
Even though the dog is dead on the floor an the sheets on her side of the bed are smouldering.
That is one of the many joys of being married.
My nose gets blocked up (out of self preservation) after one of her cabbage and broccolli caseroles.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
"I envy people who thrive on three or four hours of sleep a night. They have so much more time to work, learn, and play."
d ownload.microsoft.com/download/0/c/0/0c020894-1f95 -408c-a571-1b5033c75bbc/billg_faq.doc+%22bill+gate s%22+sleep+hour&hl=en
w ww.dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/deepspin/archive/2004/ 12/17/37445.aspx+%22bill+gates%22+sleep+hour&hl=en
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Obama's legacy: (N)othing (S)ecure (A)nywhere and (T)error (S)imulation (A)dministration
Wouldn't it be easier to just get some sleep? I'm sure we'll be able to get to the point of 20-hour workdays with magical advances of medical science--but personally, i'd rather just get some rest.
-brain
I seem to recall an X-Files episode that had something to do with the military testing a "no sleep" drug on military personnel. So are we all gonna be able to start manifesting our dreams into reality? Personally I think it'd be great because we could finally have flying cars!
chl
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd= Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=1462046 8&query_hl=4
While they argue that this drug is different because of possibly less abuse potential (yet have no data to back that assertation up with, such as self-reinforcing studies in animals), I think the real reason is because pharmaceutical patents only last 20 years. As far as abuse potential goes, addiction is usually characterized by increased dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens, of which amphetamine activates indirectly; I have seen no evidence as to whether or not CX717 will indirectly raise dopamine levels in that region of the brain as well.
They may claim they're not stimulants, but the action is that of binding to receptors and releasing a neurotransmitter called glutamate. Is that really so different than stimulants binding to a receptor and releasing norepinephrine, another neurotransmitter?
From the journal article, revealed increased activity in prefrontal cortex, dorsal striatum, and medial temporal lobe (including hippocampus) that was significantly enhanced over normal alert conditions following administration of CX717. You would see similar increases in brain activity following the administration of amphetamine as well.
Furthermore, high levels of glutamate have neurotoxic properties: In excess, glutamate causes neuronal damage and eventual cell death, particularly when NMDA receptors are activated.
Somehow though, I think the combination of a pharmaceutical company making $2.00 in profit per pill combined with possibly less of an abuse potential or political incorrectness of usage will make this drug preferred in spite of whatever risks it carries.
Of course, maybe I'm just bitter and skeptical in my old age.
Vioxx is a pain releiver that causes heart attacks when there are a lot of pain relievers that actually HELP your heart (eg aspirin).
This compound would be compared to amphetamines, which WILL give you a heart attack (and bad teeth) if you use it too much.
Compared to placebo it will certainly be more risky, but compared to any of the real drug alternatives it is likely the safest one.
... where the pharmaceutical industry devotes itself to researching drugs like these while people all over the world are dying/suffering from various incurable diseases. Now, I am aware that these types of drugs are often found by chance, but I think my argument still stands. The pharmaceutical industry has their own priorities and in most cases it's not the benefit of mankind. Am I the only one getting upset reading these types of press releases, while having given up hope a long time ago to ever learn about a real AIDS drug (one that really works)? I mean, this planet and its inhabitants are slowly drifting up the river without a paddle (we're running out of sweet water resources, we're nearing peak production of oil, the artic regions are in melt-down mode, overpopulation, war, diseases crossing continents, 35 animal species become extinct each day, etc..), and the best we can come up with to stem the tide is a fucking anti-sleep drug???
With this drug my team of monkeys will type out Shakespeare in no time!
Ugh.. MMORPGS will be ruined forever by these babies. Can you imagine some 13-year-old using these puppies to power-level for 96 hours straight?
I take about 200 mg per day of Provigil to improve performance when I pull 80 - 100 hour weeks (got it from my doc to combat "excessive sleepiness.")
One study of the drug had US Airforce pilots working 80 hours out of 88 (40 awake, then 8 asleep, then 40 more awake,) without the ill effects of amphetamines.
Anyway, the stuff works great. I don't feel all "cracked out," and I'm able to stay productive many hours longer than before. We should put the stuff in the water supply, like we do with floride....
Screw long days.
I'm just going to get a monkey hooked on amphetamines to work for me. Just like the ones in the study.
Decogestants and diet pills contain ephedrine or psuedo-ephedrine--are stimulants and precursors to amphetimine, but by no means are they the same chemical. If they had very similar effects, then people would be smoking cold pills instead of spending hours scraping red phosphate off of matches and doing all kinds of dangerous acetone extractions in order to turn their ephedrine into meth.
...I'm beginning to think I know way too much about this shit.
Of course, some people do chug straight cough syrup, but that's usually for the DXM, a dissociative hallucinogen similar to (but much more dangerous than) ketamine.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I noted that the summary stated that it could restore memory loss in Alzheimer's patients.
Darn'd grandma. Her memory is improving again. Time to restore her memory loss.......
Ok, this is sort of scary....
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
One Red Bull and Grey Goose with a shot of CX717, please!
^^
I'm sure there are studies of people who run on short sleep periods and the results of that. But I always thought the REM-sleep to be CRUCIAL for mental wellness.
I can imagine that after being excessively awake some people might start suffering psychosis and other maladies.
What about physical regeneration?
I've run on very little sleep for long periods of time. If you strain yourself fe. and are up for 24hrs, it doesn't seem to get any better, but it get more nagging... yet a few hours of sleep does wonders.
Can this drug really replace all that? (as I can imagine some of the human 'regenerating' in sleepstate might be emulated in some way)
Or is it more like going on speed for a week, until you collapse and die cause you don't feel your body is over-performing? (I never have used speed btw)
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
Sure could use some of that just about now ;)
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
Here are two interesting factoids for consideration. The first I am sure is from Scientific American. I am relatively sure the second is also.
1. Someone managed to get funding to study sleep in FRUIT FLIES. How do you get that kind of funding ! In any event the researcher pestered the flies, either by disturbing them or by administering caffeine. Turns out the flies started having a really hard time flying and performing other fly actions. If flies need sleep then there is something tremendously fundamental about sleep that is probably impervious to drugs. Perhaps you can be deprived in the short term with better performance...
2. A canonical rat experiment was done. I don't remember this too well but I believe that the final verdict on the test was: keep rats awake ALL the time and eventually they starve to death, regardless of how many calories they consume. interesting, eh ?
Number 2 may relate to the fact that the brain consumes both calories and oxygen well in excess of its mass relative to the rest of the body.
My hypothesis is that sleep is more of a metabolic-related process than it is a mental-related process.
Absolute statements are never true
on ThinkGeek? Sounds like the next best thing after coffee.
"It's absolutely fantastic." Buzzeye says as he scrapes away the skin around his eyes with a rusty nail-puller. "I've never felt better, and my productivity is way up." When asked if there were any side-effects, Buzzeye replied "None whatsoever. Since I killed my wife and sold my children to Satan, who happens to live two doors down, things have been great. Now if I could only get the snakes to stop eating my feet, I'd be one hundred percent. Oh, could you get the door, I think it's Napoleon. He's a real bitch, and he likes to steal my aluminum brainguard."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
no pill can replace that function of sleep: a pill can influence a biological pathway, but a pill can't replace the functions of multiple overlapping pathways... some working in cooperation, some not working cooperation, pathways that require work to be done on engines that are not currently moving
what a pill can do instead is allow for more damage to be done to the brain than natural biological stop-gap measures would otherwise allow: to dig yourself into a deeper hole
you need know no more about the biochemical pathways involved here, you merely need to know two principles are at work here:
many "wonder drugs" fail basic bullshit tests like these, don't buy the snake oil
you were given only one brain, protect it from hype
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Dew is for Newbies. A serious coders/admins drinks serious stuff.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
reverse the biological and behavioral effects of sleep deprivation ...was this drug developed in Soviet Russia?
I'm sure this drug, coupled with a new discovery of a drug that increases IQ on the short term would be of enormous benefit to students worldwide :) Is there such a drug combination I wonder?
Patient: "Doc, I'm really having a hard time sleeping. Can you help?"
Doc: "Sure, pal. But first, I need to know if you actually want to sleep, or if you'd just like to not need to sleep. If you want to sleep, we can go with Lunesta. Otherwise, I've got this really good shit..."
...the drug makes you want to feed on living human brains. A spokesperson for the company that produces the drug stated that this doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing, adding that she would suck my brain and feel much better than.
This was Kent Brockman, now back to the monkey.
"Except that no-body holds the patent on cocaine so its illegal."
I can't believe that reasoning.
First: Asprin and Alcohol aren't patented, and aren't illegal.
Second: Lots of patented drugs are VERY illegal. (It takes a lot of money, time, red tape, and testing to get a new patented drug to the point where it is even legal to test on people.)
But then you say:
"We don't need a pill to help us work harder, we just need to adjust our expectations."
Which I totally agree with.
Exam 4/C again. Maybe I'll do better this time.
Do you realize how much drug and medical research is done on prison inmates? In exchange for which they get something like $1/day? This is Nazi class shit we have going on here. Many end up with horrible diseases from testing vaccines, or have the diseases induced just to study them, it's absolutely abhorrent.
Too bad Jack Bauer and the folk from 24 couldn't get a prescription.
I no longer need to punish, deceive, or compromise myself. Unless, of course, I want to stay employed.
I remember a few fringe articles a few months ago, regarding what the Pentagon's skunk works were up to and there was talk of a "Universal Soldier" type stuff, where the troops would be able to function non-stop 24/7 for a couple of weeks with very little food and no sleep, resulting in a formidable fighting force for intensive blitzkrieg type assaults. Now this drug comes up, so it seems that research is continuing on this line.
However, with the Iraq experience, this will probably not be the solution for long-term campaigns that will drag on for years, unless you have a neverending supply of fresh meat and having bunches of burned-out husks of soldiers is not a problem.
Tests performed on monkeys that were subjected to 30-36 hours of sleep deprivation revealed an average test performance accuracy drop to 63 percent, but that performance was restored to 84 percent after administering CX717.
Mountain Dew or Amphetamines have the same effect. Does the new drug put the brain through the same 'regenerative process' as sleep, whatever that is? Can't say I am happy to hear that monkeys are being derived of sleep. Animal research like this is pretty repugnamt.
an ill wind that blows no good
Nobody has yet noticed the usefulness of this drug to improve concentration and attentiveness.
...sleep deprived, drugged up monkeys running amok.
I'm more interested in their study of how/if this new drug helps ADHD people. It even mentions it in TFA
I really shouldn't have used someone else's email address for this account.
Maybe you're not sleeping right for you. I'd be interested to know if you've ever tried polyphasic sleep... sleep for about 25 to 45 miuntes 6 to 4 times a day. From what I've read, your body adjusts to the schedule so that you do get a full sleep cycle within that short amount of time. Supposedly it's a hard schedule to nail down, but if you're into the habbit of waking shortly after sleeping then this might be exctly what you need.
I'd be interested to know if you or any other insomiacs have tried polyphase. I'm quite the opposite - once asleep (a chore) I play hell trying to wake back up and that has it's own drawbacks. I've concidered polyphase just to get the extra 4 hours a day it yields (more like 5 or 6 for me).
In this society, we are powerfully encouraged to discharge that energy as quickly as possible through orgasm. According to some, sexual energy, once thus spent, is collected and consumed by etheric beings who exist in a higher level of reality and keep the human race like cattle for this purpose, (among others). True or not, you don't get to use your sexual energy once it's been given up through orgasm.
On the other hand, sexual energy can also be saved up and used in other ways. People who have a lot of regular sex tend to be exhausted and dim behind the eyes because their primary source of 'income' energy is much reduced. One's level of awareness and the availability of energy are directly linked to one another.
This is not to say that having orgasms is 'bad'. Physical sex is part of why we all came to this reality. It's fun, and it can be used to link in very powerful ways to other people, as well as link to otherwise difficult to access knowledge. But for the most part, people are instructed by the media to channel away their sexual energy immediately before it can be effectively used for anything else. In the morning, people often wake up in states of heightened arousal. This has nothing to do with holding back urination as conventional medicine tells us, (you don't get a woody any other time during the day when you need to 'go'. And it happens for women as well, who don't have the same plumbing) Sexual energy is there to be used as you wish.
In any case, sleep is the way this energy finds its way into us from the Universal source. Drugs which prevent sleep are, I assume, accessing stored wells of energy, which cannot last forever. There is a reason why they say, "Speed Kills". --Of course, there are other ways in which to draw energy from the world around us other than sleep, including drawing energy from the earth through grounding meditations and exercises, (good!) Eating food and consuming life force, (standard), energetic vampirism through direct and indirect methods of torturing others, (nasty and ultimately self-destructive.). But above all of these, Sexual energy is potent and pure and freely available to anybody who can catch 40 winks.
-FL
...from what I've read, it's supposed to be only used for people suffering from narcolepsy.
The story I read (about 3 years ago, in the New Yorker) mentioned that in experiments with it, normal people were able to stay awake for *days* on end (I think the longest was a week) without any of the symptoms typically associated with sleep deprivation -- fatigue, loss of mental abilities, and with enough deprivation, psychotic behavior.
And as you said, they only needed a normal night of sleep to be back to square one -- no 36 hour marathons of sedative-laced sleep or days of recovery to feel normal. (*I* need 2-3 days of consecutive quality sleep to recover from even one all-nighter, and that's without using any stimulants).
IIRC they really hadn't identified any substantive problems with it in terms of side effects, although I think it's probably new and there's always the chance of long-term brain rot. The article did say that while the drug was only approved for narcolepsy, it's apparently prescribed at a level beyond what's considered statistically appropriate given the known narcoleptic population. Apparently some people have figured out it's value.
I asked my doctor if we could have a prescription after our son was born. I was mostly joking, but kind of serious. The sleep deprivation with a new child is pretty punishing, and being able to "take over" for 24 hours while the other slept would have been a huge benefit. Oddly the doctor didn't give me modafinil, but did give me Xanax.
At first I read that as using "three" but I've been up for 17 hours (how ironic)...
But this drug won't make the 167 hour work week (6.958333 days) possible, as the user 'lastchance' has suggested in jest.
From Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_debt
Get your Unix fortune now!
Felt like a million what?
I know. It hurts. Leave me alone until I get to the hospital.
Because if you can consciously 'snooze' nerves, you will reinjure yourself by trying to do stuff you shouldn't. (My knee hurts, so I think I'll just shut that pain down... Oops, I guess it wasn't good to try to push the accelerator normally on my way to the hospital. Is that supposed to bend that way?)
Leprosy isn't associated with immediate mortality. People die of it indirectly, though, because they don't have the nerve feedback they need to protect themselves. Your conscious snooze system would run the same risks.
Meanwhile the body does prevent you from feeling pain in some circumstances. People who break their legs can get past the point where they feel the pain any more. And the body sort of knows when that'd be best, for my money, better than I would.
If you'd like to start shutting stuff down, I suggest bowing to the hystrionic news coverage from a couple of years back and turning off your car's airbag system. Just for starters.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
My first child was born just three weeks ago (Boy, 7lbs, 11oz!)
I am recently back at work, and let me tell you, I could use some of this stuff!
More Caffeine. NOW
Have you tried taking melatonin? Worked like a charm for me when I had a couple of weeks when I had to work day shift for 2 days, night shift for 4 nights, day shift for 3 days, night shift for 1 night, i.e. totally random shift changes. Also useful in jet lag.
If you have a big problem with falling asleep, your brain is probably not producing enough melatonin on its own, so give it some more.
Truckers in outback Australia take speed to help them stay awake and make up for all the time they spent with mates/at brothel/corporate deadline.
In the case of the Air Force, they have determined a safety regime to make the drug measured and safe to protect their multi million $$$ investment [the pilot]
In the case of Truckers, they self diagnose, self dose and often overdo it or underdo it. Several High Grossing Vehicles have killed innocent people because of the practice.
If you have ever had an ecstacy tablet, it most likely had speed in it. I hate speed myself. The worst thing about speed, having tried it, is that it makes you aggressive, short of temper and makes your teeth loose.
I wonder what side effects these awake drugs will have.
[% slash_sig_val.text %]
I think there are more innocent uses.
Imagine the truck driver that gets a good night of sleep and is bound to strict regulations on how much he/she can drive in one day (without a fellow team driver) - but they tend to get tired seven hours into their (legally mandated maximum) 8 hour shift (or is it 12?). Now even though they are not yet racking up a sleep debt they start to lose some functions they need to stay alive (and possibly keep you alive too). Instead of using crystal meth, which is very popular amongst truck drivers, or even caffeine, they can actually use a drug that will really restore their brain functions - no stimulants needed, no addiction necessary.
Another great use that comes to mind are those beat to death medical residents out there. My buddy just started his OB/GYN residency and has to work one 30 hour shift a week, usually finishing the week with four more shifts all lasting 12 hours each. If he can take something that keeps him from dropping a baby (which already almost happened) then I'd say 'pop those pills'!
This drug sure has the potential to be abused, like any other. But like any drug it has great benefits, especially for those who work in dangerous jobs that have to push themselves to their limits with sleep deprivation building up on them.
(I hope this makes sense, I've now been up for 17.5 hours. I'm not kidding, I've got bi-polar and find it's impossible to sleep when manic. Maybe I could score a few on the street in a few years.)
Get your Unix fortune now!
I have an older Innerpulse, similar to this
http://www.iproducts.ws/InnerPulse.htm
I set it on manual at a couple HZ and it makes me sleepy. The built-in programs are very entertaining - some of the visual and aural effects are spectacular
It's just the number of caffeine molecules crammed into the pill!
See, that formula is simple!
C = Caffeine X = multiplication (from simple math people) 717 = cafeine molecules.
Generation Trance: What generation are you?
Abrasion Ache Aches and pains Aches and pains such as stiffness lumbago rheumatism and sciatica Aching limbs Acid indigestion Acid stomach Acne Acute gastroenteritis Acute seasonal allergic conjunctivitis After care of haemorrhoids treated by surgery or injection Airway Alcohol Alkali intolerance Allergic condition Allergic conditions of the respiratory tract Allergic conjunctivitis Allergic contact dermatitis Allergic dermatoses Allergic rhinitis Allergic rhinitis with nasal congestion Allergic skin reaction Allergy through contact Allergy, allergies Amino acids Ammoniacal dermatitis Anaemia Anaemia in pregnancy Anal fissure Angi neurotic oedema Anti inflammatory agent Antiflatulent Antiseptic Antiseptic and analgesic for boils and minor skin infections Antiseptic wound cleansing Anus Artificial tear and lubricant Asthma Athletes foot Atopic dermatitis Atopic dermatoses Atopic eczema B Baby, babies Backache Bacteria Bacterial infections of the mouth and throat Bad breath Bath skin softener for dry skin Before and after dental surgery Before bathing skin softener Biliousness Bite, bites Blepharitis Blister, blisters Blocked nose due to allergy Blocked nose due to hayfever Blocked sinuses Blood blister Boil, boils Bowel regulation in bed ridden and pregnant women Breath freshener Breathing help Breathlessness Broken skin Bronchial and nasal congestion Bronchial breathlessness Bronchial catarrh Bronchial cold Bronchial congestion and catarrh in babies from three months Bronchial cough Bronchial cough wheezing and breathlessness Bronchial cough wheezing and breathlessness in children Bronchial wheezing Bruise Bruising Bunions Burn C Callouse Candida infections Catarrh Catarrh and head cold Catarrh bronchitis flu and throat infection Catarrh hayfever and nasal congestion Chaffing Chapped and sore hands Chapped flaky skin Chapped hands Chapped lips Chapping Chestiness Chesty bronchial and dry tickly cough Chesty cough Chesty cough and catarrh Chesty cough and nasal congestion Chesty cough and sore throat Chesty cough hoarseness and sore throat Chicken pox Chilblain, chilblains Children Chronic constipation Clean and refresh the mouth after meals Cleanser for face and body Cleansing Cleansing and disinfection of minor wounds cuts grazes and minor abrasions including insect bites and stings Cleansing and prevention of infection of all types of lesions Clear the chest of mucus after infection Clearer whites of the eye Coital discomfort in postmenopausal women Cold Cold and catarrh Cold and flu Cold and flu pains Cold and flu symptoms with aches and pains Cold and flu with a cough Cold and flu with a decongestant for catarrh Cold at night time Cold cough and catarrh Cold flu and a blocked nose Cold flu and catarrh Cold flu and headache Cold sores Cold sores of face Cold sores of lips Colds Colic Colon Common cold Common mouth ulcer Congestion Congestion and blocked nose associated with cold catarrh flu or hayfever Congestion and excess secretions in the upper respiratory tract Congestion and heavy mucus in the nasal cavity and sinuses Congestion associated with pain and fever Congestion of the upper airways Congestion relief in coughs colds and catarrh Conjunctivitis Constipation Contact dermatitis Contact with irritants Control and prohylaxis of skin infection Control of skin infection Convalescence Corn, corns Corns and callouses Corns and hard skin Cough Cough and associated congestion of nasal and bronchial mucous membrane Cough and associated congestive symptoms Cough and cold Cough and cold especially for babies and young children Cough and cold in children Cough and cold symptoms Cough and congestion Cough and congestion without drowsiness Cough and congestive symptoms particularly those associated with colds Cough and other upper respiratory tract infections Cough associated with bronchial catarrh Cough associated with bronchial cold Cough associated with bronchial influenza Cough associated with bronchial laryngitis Cough associated with bronchial pharyngitis Cough cold and influenza Cough colds and bronchial catarrh C
Here is what this thing will do: http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=73
There have been studies that suggest sleep is simply a method for the brain to purge itself of "weak memories"
If any medical person was to suggest that I would immediately dismiss him as a total quack. There is NO SUCH THING as an outside environmental influence that affects just one portion of the body. "Cleaning up the clutter" in your brain is only one effect of sleep. Your brain isn't a computer hard drive that needs defragging every night--it is much more complex than that and what affects the brain can affect any and all other parts of the body. There are autonomic responses that change when the brain is asleep vs. awake, changes to hormone levels, etc. that without doubt promote regeneration of the body. Sure, you can rest your skeletal muscles and let them rebuild without actually sleeping, but you cannot consciously control your heartbeat, muscles controlling your GI tract, the levels of hormones in your bloodstream and so on, so how can you expect to simulate the effects of sleep without actually sleeping?
Beyond that, even if sleep was only about the brain, can you imagine the psychological effects of an accumulation of "weak memories" or excessively prolonged conscious brain activity? At best I think you'd end up being an ADD-like basket case. At worst you could go clinically insane.
I think that should such a drug that counteracts the symptoms of sleep deprivation become widely available those who abuse it would reveal to us a whole host of side effects related to lack of sleep never before encountered. Apart from degrading mental health I think that people would physically age faster without sleep. Look at drug addicts today-sometimes they start out as "normal", smart, professional people that fro some reason get caught in an addiction. Early in the addiction they can function amazingly well with little or no sleep, but they slowly degrade as they fry their brains. While they are hooked these addicts age twice as fast as normal--even if they never end up on the street addicts in their 30s look like they are 50.
This drug is like methadone--it is cocaine or speed without the highly addictive properties and some of the other adverse side effects. I believe that further, long-term/multi-year studies would reveal that the test animals might show good performance initially, but in a few years they'd look like junkies--even if they are still more mentally alert. I forsee similar results in humans--they might be very productive and alert compard to heroin addicts, but they'll look just as old and worn out.
I wonder how they kept the monkeys up 30 to 60 hours.
Played a lot of heavy metal music?
Poked it whenever it looked sleepy.
Oh for the good old days when researchers tested on themselves.
BS. Sleep is a disease and needs to be cured. It's a chronic disease that affects every human on the planet. We need a cure for sleep!
"But all your emitter and collector are belong to me!"
The question is: what happens once it wears off?
Does it *reverse* the effects of sleep deprivation?
Or does it merely ameliorate them?
Once it wears off, is there a crash landing?
Viagra sometimes causes 4 hour erections. Right now it's a side-effect, but it might be considered progress to our new CX717-popping overlords.
Modafinil (aka Provigil) is already about, tested with very few side effects, only it is restricted to use in miliraty and by prescription only.
The trick is to sell modafinil on the streets (no need to sleep for a week! w00t!), and use the surplus doctor/nurse shifts to treat those with the minor side effects. And extra police hours to tackle the odd abuser. Sorted.
In other related news, geeks around the world are turning down caffiene in favor of CX717 for those long nights of coding and video game playing.
Having a smoking section in a public restaurant is like having a peeing section in a public swimming pool.
if this drug only masks a problem. One can mask the effects of fatigue by taking speed too but burn out will occur. I doubt that this drug is a replacement for sleep. More likely one would just feel great until heart failure occurs.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
I found that this guy gets me to sleep every time, when I am having trouble though it's usually because my mind is running and this type of meditation forces you to not think about everything by focusing on your breathing.
Yeah, and the reverse is true(as per those power memory courses)...which ties also into old age, the more you are "comfortable doing nothing"...and delve less & less into the adventurous, the less & less you need to remember.
By forcing a traumatic response in the brain to help remember something, you actually promote memory....
so next time you need to remember that phone #, just imagine something "extreme"...and view the phone # in your head....you would be surprised at how easy it becomes to remember stuff....(96% average in college with a breeze)...
Also i guess if you stay busy and keep your "self" always moving and more importantly build the neccessaty to remember things (even at 75) you will help promote against memory loss.
If you Google this, you can read all about Peter Tripp who never quite recovered completely from his sleep-deprivation publicity stunt. Ended up divorcing his wife, losing his job, etc. etc...
Although sleep is still mostly a mystery, it is clear that it performs some sort of restorative effect. Does anyone know how this drug works and if it just blocks the symptoms of sleepiness?
Get your 8 hours a night!
so, what you're saying is, we've got synthetic caffeine now?
I'll stick to the $1 pseudoephedrin pills available at most gas stations + a bottle of mt. dew or jolt to wash it down. Thanks!
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
At least two times (Porto Seguro both times) I went thru carnival (starts friday night, ends wednesday noon) with no sleep at all. Ok, I dozed off half an hour each day, but no real sleep. Worked the thursday and friday, and then, lose the entire weekend (go to sleep friday 21:00, wake up sunday 17:00, attend mass, go to sleep again, wake up monday 7:00 to go to work again.
:-)
The good side is that it's 120h samba/axé, booze, making out, and occasionally having sex
It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
They have no evidence this reverses the effects of sleep deprivation, only that it increases sleep-deprived monkeys ability to complete a certain task. A stimulant like caffiene does the same thing, so CX717 could simply be a stimulant. Until they demonstrate otherwise (like in a test that might demonstrate their claim, like 5 days of sleep deprivation followed by immense improvement in the ability to accomplish a task) this is all hype.
Why oh why does no one blink or yet shutter at the idea of this experiment and the torture of the primates that is involved.
Please spare me any arguments of necessity of animal experimentation, it's all bullsh*t. The vast majority of torture disguised as science is just like this one - of questionable merit and hardly a life-or-death necessity that vivisectionist might have you believe.
What contemptable crap. Of all the tools available to science and all the things this world needs, this is how some people spend their time - pursuing military dollars by torturing animals - socially-aware and emotive primates.
< /rant >
I'm having a hard time believing the following can be true:
1. This doesn't get you high, even if taken at higher doses, like cough medicine.
2. It does't get you high if you combine it with other legal or prescription substances.
3. It's not addictive.
One of the above is probably false. And that's bad. I give it two weeks before the first college kid goes on a 3 day binge the weekend before midterms, and pops 5x the reccomended dosage at 6am Monday morning, with a BAC still over the legal limit where it's been since Thursday.
Granted these could be very useful and I would probably want to use them myself, but people are idiots, and this is going to harm or kill them, I guarantee it. I'm not anti-drug, I believe what you do with your own body is your own business and what I do with mine is mine (if only a single government on the planet agreed). But in the world we live in, this isn't going to fly. There'll be lawsuits all over the place.
Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!
They exist. Very very rarely, humans are born without the ability to feel pain. They usually die before reaching puberty as a result of some sort of injury that would have been much more minor had they been able to feel pain. I'm not joking; I'm too lazy to look it up right now but this is the truth.
He's talking about not sleeping at all, or an hour or two a night. A lot of insomnia is in your head. He just might need that little something to relax and forget about not being able to sleep.
Not trying something because it's not perfect is a sure way to fail. Alcohol changes the mood, relieves tension, and can make some people very sleepy. The stimulant effect is overrated, about like eating ice cream before bed.
Self-hypnosis also can work, and as far as I know it's free of side effects.
Raise your children as if you were teaching them to raise your grandchildren, because you are.
1- Deprive monkeys of sleep 2- Test monkeys (crappy awareness results) 3- Scare the hell ou of the monkeys with big needle injections 4- Re-test monkeys (high awareness) 5- ????? 6- Profit!
For example, two blind men are given a test where they have to organize objects by color. One is also given a textural cue on each object, the other is not. Obviously the subject with the texture cue will perform better, but that doesn't mean that texturizing is a cure for blindness!
You sleep because it's the primordial, natural state of life itself. You only wake up to obtain nutrients and to procreate. Anything else you do while awake is extraneous to this. You share this with all animal life forms. You may even share it with all plant life forms, too. Being awake is a temporary state, too much of which will kill you because it is not natural to be awake. This is a metabolic fact of life. Sleep isn't a behavioral adaptation. Being awake is a temporary metabolic phase. Without it you'd starve and you wouldn't procreate, but that is all you really need to do while awake. Everything else you do while awake is a "bonus". The fact that too much sleep won't kill you is the key idea here. Why do we sleep is the wrong question. Why do we wake up is the right question, and that's an easily answerable question.
Sounds just like cocaine; and I'd hardly be surprised if the long-term effects, also on personality, turned out to be pretty similar.
Sleep is a vital ingredient for the sustained function of practically every complex neurobiologically controlled organism.
If it could be replaced by drugs without detrimental side effects (at least in the long run), we'd have glands providing the equivalent neurotransmitter substances non-stop.
Any drug that can affect your nervous system can have all kinds of side-effects around the body. Nurotransmitors not only affect brain cells, but are whidely used in the digestive system and blood vessels too. Fuck around in one place and you may fuck around elsewhere and a bunh early corpses found out.
This drug is extremely effective in reversing the effects of sleep deprivation, without the side-efects. Indeed, it increases alertness without sacrificing response times (ordinarliy a major drawback of traditional "stimulants", (which Alertec is not, BTW, at least in the conventional sense)).
It's already prescribed, off-lable, for use by the likes of shift workers. For example: it is known to be in wide use by doctors an other medical professionals that wotk in emergency environments.
I've tried it, and it's uncanny: you could have been awake for 20 hours straight, and be falling-down tired. Then you take a dose of modafinil and, in no time, it's like you just woke up. Twitchyness or jitteryness? Foret about it, coz it doesn't happen w/this drug. After a time depending on the dosage you took, you become tired again, and can fall asleep normally.
I once used it to stay awake for just under a week (that's _seven_ days w/o sleep), and was alert and "normal" the whole time (and have been fine since). It sounds crazy, I know, but educate yourself on this drug before you jump to conclusions.
uhhhhh.. yo
ritalin is NOT an amphetamine last i checked... and is not really too similar to meth at all!!! Well, of course it is similar, but you know what i mean... Last i checked it was actually very similar in action to.. cocaine...
So yes
Ritalin=similar to coke
Adderall=a mix of 4 amphetamine salts designed to be the smoothest acting (seriously, and you wonder why it gets abused)...
but since no one has bothered to link to any reputable sites, lemme just go
http://slate.msn.com/id/2076413/
replacing it with NEW Folger's Crystals! (lets see if they notice the difference)
Maybe it would allow me to remember where I put my keys!
Test it on _nurses_ and then we'll see how well it works!
Isn't sleeping the sleep deprivation cure? I think it would be many times more worthy finding a drug that could double the effects of sleeping. So you could sleep 4 hours and awake feeling great and totally restored.
And really its only the last 4 hours before a deadline that the work gets done
It seems like you should be given far more deadlines!
Man, whatever it is you do for a living:
Try to become a freelancer.
Get up. Enjoy a big, healthy breakfast. Take a walk, go shopping, enjoy the sun, meet friends.
Six or seven hours later, go to work (you still need a "buffer" in case something goes wrong with your job.)
Work until you are too tired to go on. When you cant understand what you just wrote/read, it is definitely time to go to bed.
This may feel weird at the start (our culture seems to be hardwired to the "work first/play afterwards" model), but it works for me.
I have been living like this for almost twenty years, and it works. I go to bed when I am tired. I get circa eight hours of fun, eight hours of work and eight hours of sleep out of the day, like almost everybody else. I just accept the offset (and I have clients who are willing to do the same, among them a tiny little software company from Redmond).
Try it. You might like it.
PS: Never, ever use your bed for something else than sleep or sex. Condition your brain to accept this as the place where it is supposed to shut down. This is important. Trust me.
Works wonders once, unfortunately after that giving a damn about anything else ends forever.
As a long-time sufferer of obstructive sleep apnea (got the official diagnosis today in fact, after 15 or more years suffering from it), and showing all of the symptoms of it including extreme weight gain, lack of coordination, restlessness , ittitability, fatigue, and so on, I think I speak for everyone here - I'd much rather correct the problem of sleep deprivation itself than take some drug that claims to restore my mental state (in the case of depression: Zoloft, anyone?)
The few pills I take every day are already enough - stop typing to shove MORE chemicals down my throat that only take care of the symptoms, and start fixing the problem at the source. That's where our research needs to be focused, for *any* condition that needs corrected.
If the problem is lack of sleep because of lack of time or deadlines or something, then maybe a change of career or priorities is needed. But if it's medical, then corrective *action* is needed. I had to get totally out of the working world because I couldn't handle it anymore, and it was literally killing me. Is it really so hard then, to keep your job and just adjust your lifestyle to make more time for sleep?
Karma: I don't care too much, but it's 0.0% (mostly due to lack of interest)
All I do for the same effect is mix caffeine and nicotine. Works for me, I've been up for 6 days now and no probbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
Is this just rebranded cocaine?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Isn't this just overclocking the human body? Seriously, as a narcoleptic "friend" tells me, his Modafinil overrides normal sleep deprivation effects. His body then allows him to continue on an artificially acceptable minimum sleep level. The problem is that just a few days of this leads to strange headaches and moods. The only way to set things straight is to actually *sleep*. How novel!
Yeah, yeah, offtopic, but I have karma to burn.
I have found that using a very fine grained task work method keeps me in that "last 4 hours" mindset all the time.
I have heard it explained as Agile, and also as XP, but here are the bits that I think are really important:
* break down the whole project into user stories: the complete list of stuff the user gives a shit about, in the form of little one or two sentence stories about what the user does/the results he expects
* estimate the time to implement the user stories and rank them by risk (high, medium, or low). The risk is how likely it is to take significantly longer than you estimated to do it. Sometimes something could take 2 days, or 2 weeks, depending on whether something goes wrong. Estimate in team days.
* pick a list of 2 weeks worth of user stories. Break them down into tasks. The vast, vast majority of tasks should be 2 days or less of work; break 'em up if they're more. The 2 week period is called an iteration.
* every single day, meet with everyone on the team and tell what tasks you finished since the last meeting, what tasks you're working on, and what you plan to do tomorrow. Also if you face any roadblocks. This meeting is your "last 4 hours" mentality. This meeting should take less than 20 minutes.
There's lots more, but basically this is a combination of Rational Unified Process, XP, and Agile. In my fairly considerable experience doing software development, it kicks ass. It is not only more productive, it is more fun.
BTW, estimation should be done using planning poker... everyone on the team discusses the scope of the user story and what new things have to be done to accomplish it, estimates in team days on a hidden card, then all show their card at once. Argue until you all agree. If the estimate is more than 5 team days, break up the user story.
End off-topic rant.
I would like to take this opportunity to extend my deepest sympathy to truck drivers everywhere. Watch for this to become mandatory as a way to decrease accidents with current driving hours, then slowly but surely they will increase the driving hours.
If you mod me down, I shall become less powerful than you could possibly imagine.
For about ten years of my life I've suffered from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (a condition where breathing problems interfere with the bodies ability to get REM sleep). While I did get stage 1-3 sleep I was pretty deficient in stage for REM sleep... and I really did feel horrible all the time. This drug promises to improve poeples lives!
While I am certain that countless evil corporations would love to further enslave their busy laborers there is quite a bit to think about here.
Why do we suffer from sleep deprivation symptoms? If sleep deprivation is natures method of preventing further damage by warning the body that it needs further sleep then what will happen if we ignore these signals. This would be like taking a pain killer to allow us to hurt ourselves more.
On the other hand, perhaps sleep deprivation is just a nasty side effect of our body's inhereted need for nocturnal protection. In this case people everywhere might simply choose not to sleep. Would this have an impact on our lifespans? Stress levels? Etc. I for one do enjoy sleep quite a bit...
I find this article quite interesting but I'd be afaid to try the drug without further research into the field of sleep study. After all, I'm finally free from 10 years of sleep deprivation...
..and so I'll provide an answer
There is actually a lot of evidence backing my point...
This is hardly "insider" stuff--it is "popular science" material my friend. Hormones affect sleep, sleep affects hormones and so on...it is all linked and involves more than cognitive abilities are physical alertness. Sleep deprivation (especially long-term/chronic) can affect growth, metabolism, aging, sex drive...everything. There is no way a single drug that merely keeps you physically and mentally alert without sleep would be healthy if used chronically.
Horny hairy guys going at it for 36 hours straight! Is it me or are the drug manufacturers trying to turn all men into Ron Jeremy??!?!
Hey, you know what else reverses the effects of sleep deprivation? SLEEP! And that's not all -- it's FREE!
So is it kind of like Focusin?
Talking Back to Ritalin
Ritalin-Free Kids
No More Ritalin
The Myth of the A.D.D. Child
(some of the selections from an Amazon.com search on the word "ritalin".)
In the case of ritalin and similar drugs intended to curb hyperactivity, especially in children, I would say, both anecdotally and as the result of doing a college freshman-level research paper, that while I'm very certain that it's been overprescribed and abused (I am not a doctor, but I do not think that a single half-hour session of observing a child is sufficient to label them hyperactive) that there are those cases where it is appropriate to treat hyperactivity and attention problems that don't respond to other methods.
I don't think that Ritalin is an appropriate substitute for parental and teacher time, attention, training, and exercise to run the wiggles out before sitting down to learn. If I, as an aunt, can get my six-year-old nephew to sit still and behave himself for the entirety of a three hour college lecture on a weekly basis (ten minute breaks in between sessions, during which there were bathroom visits and an opportunity to tear around like a mad thing) and the first grade teacher cannot get the same child to hold still in class, that speaks more of a too-large class size, not enough individualized attention, not enough opportunity to burn all that youthful energy on physical activity, and a behavioural problem with listening to the teacher, rather than a medical condition.
I can see using a focus-enhancing drug to prove to a kid that yes, you can too sit still and learn in class, and this is what it feels like -- and now you are going to learn to do the same thing without the pill. One of my camp buddies was on Ritalin, and he was much more focused on the drug, but much more personable and interesting to be around when unmedicated.
Similarly, I do not think that this new sleep-deprivation drug is going to in any way replace the actual sleep. It will be used and abused, and people are going to make an unholy fuss over it, but I think in the long run, people who use it wisely or people who just go with natural sleep are going to be ultimately more productive and pleasant to work with. The article does not mention side effects. There's no guarantee that people on this are going to be any more pleasant to work with while alert and sleep-deprived on this rather than on coffee. It didn't mention how much sleep someone requires after using this; it could well be something where people feel alarmingly hung-over after using unless they've gotten a solid ten to twelve hours of sleep. It doesn't mention effectiveness as a morning caffeine substitute.
The one brilliant application that does spring to mind is actually for resetting a funky biological clock: for jetlag and schedule-based insomnia. If this provides alertness without some of the harsh effects of caffeine, I would definitely apply it for myself on those days when I have to work mornings and start burning out around 3 pm. (I usually work afternoons and evenings, so my scheduled bedtime is somewhere upwards
I'm posting this as an AC, I think for obvious reasons, but I have epilepsy caused by sleep deprivation. Its a somewhat rare occurance that's misunderstood by people. Most think that seizures from epilepsy just "happen". This is true for many. There are other causes like certain smells or visual senses such as 'disco lights' that trigger a seizure.
;)
In my case, if I literally do not get 6 to 8 hours of sleep per night or I'm sufficiently sleep deprived I will suffer a seizure (minor now because I'm medication but much worse otherwise). I'm hoping that this medication might lead to a better epilepsy treatment in a few years that might not only prevent the seizure but also prevent the effect of sleep deprivation from setting in. But I won't work 36 hours straight
Good to see The New York Times is maintaining the same journalistic standards today as it did in 1914!
fish and pipes
Beggars in Spain, by Nancy Kress - I think that link is referral-free, but post better ones if you like.
It's a novella set in the near future where people have found that sleep really is useless and an evolutionary relic, and people without sleep seem to perform just fine. Not just fine - they're smarter (due to all that extra study time) and happier (due to the resulting changes to brain chemistry).
They find a gene that turn sleep off, and start disabling it in newborns - kicking off an entire race of smarter, happier humans who have no need to sleep. For some reason, the rest of us feel threatened by it...
Anyway, for anyone interested in this discussion, the novella is worth a read. (It also took the double of both Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1992 and 1991, for those who care.)
There was a book from 1961 called "The Unsleep" It featured the drug Sta-Awake." It is a good read if you can find a copy of it. Authors were Diana and Meir Gillon. I have a copy somewhere having read it about 10 years ago. It still pops up in my mind these days. In the wide awake world of the future, beds become known only for its non-sleep purpose, and people have to find ways to use up their extra time they have available. The social impact of all of this is explored. I won't say anything more to spoil the story if you can find it.
Work getting you down? Bloodsuckers and backstabbers at your doorstep? Got that sudden urge to suck on some grey matter?
Try Tromactyn !
Listen to some unsolicited comments we've pai^H^H^Hreceived.
[Swamp Thing] I had a real problem with my family life, what with the pollution, the local yokels always shooting up the place.
[Sgt. Kabukiman] Thats tough Swampy, but with me its the Rads that really drain you. After 16 hours walking the halls of THS, dealing with mutant freaks, this miracle drug really straightens you out.
[Both smiles at cameraman]
[Cameraman runs for cover]
Scientist: That appetite depressant is amazing!
Scientist 2: Homer... you really have no desire to eat that food?
Homer: Food... food?! I'm blind! Augh! Augh!
Scientist: Who's gonna buy a pill that makes you blind?
Scientist 2: Why don't we let marketing worry about that.
same benefits, fewer side-effects, no reports of dependency or aggression.
It's good shit. Doesn't make you high though which is why some people find it a little disappointing. Having become used to the flood of seratonin, melatonin and adrenalin which kicks in with coke & sulphate - ie the high - some people don't appreciate having it taken away when they take safer stuff like modafinil. But once you get over that it's quite nice to stay awake without having your judgement impaired.
Preposterous example! What you would have needed was a dose of gamma radiation!
From the first link:
We found that the metabolic and endocrine changes resulting from a significant sleep debt mimic many of the hallmarks of aging
That was EXACTLY ONE OF THE POINTS I MADE in my original post--if one were to abuse a medication that allowed you to stay awake for extended periods, and did so for many years, then you could very well age at an accelerated rate, much like junkies hooked on cocaine, speed or heroin do. yes, junkies often lead hard lives that can wear tehm down faster, but one of the characteristics they share is that they all suffer from significant sleep deprivation at various times. The article only mentions the findings, but if you want to see details of the proof then go find Dr Van Cauter's study.
The other articles I referenced are more to prove the point that sleep does more than let your brain get organised. The fact that the study mentioned in the first article is the first serious study EVER on the effects of LONG TERM sleep deprivation and it only happened in the last few years indicates to me that medical science is extremely unqualified at this point to say with confidence that we can medicate our way out of requiring sleep.