Thread: why do we require sleep?

Originally Posted by jinx

I just ate aprox. 210mg of caffiene via caffienated candy (Turbo Truffles) about forty minutes ago and am feeling fine, still twitching slightly. Thought I'd just give it a try. Is there a world record for a contiguos span of non-sleeping? For you guys worrying about my gas mileage and driving, give it a rest (no pun intended). I'm not endagering anyone while I'm driving around at 3:30 a.m. on rural backroads, promise, Though I have driven to each state in my tri-state area since the fourth. The more that I think about this whole thing of not sleeping, I like it. I seem to remember reading an article a couple of month ago on astnn.com that had some substance in it about military or gov't testing with some chems that did something to the seratonin levels in the body and showed that sleep wasn't necessary in this altered state.

I should have shared this story sooner, but I forgot about it. Where I used to work, we had a software contractor that came in to work with us and I went out to lunch with him one day. Over the hour that we were gone, he told me about his problems with sleep deprivation after I saw him take a pill.

When he was younger (late teens/early 20s), he used to get no more than 1-2 hours of sleep per nite, and he said that he thought sleeping was a waste of time and he could learn so much more as a programmer if he stayed up practicing and reading all nite instead of sleeping. This seemed to work for him for a while, and he said that he got into a routine and he felt perfectly normal.

He also said that over a period of time, his system started to degrade and he actually ended up going to the doctor because his heart couldn't take it. He started having health problems and his doctor told him that it was because of his lack of sleep.

Now he gets 4-6 hours of sleep per nite and he's on medication to get him back on track. By the way, he's in his late 30s/early 40s now and he still feels the effects.

Don't do it.

"I read of a DJ that tried staying up for three days straight as a part of a radio show thing or something like that, and he went insane (never to recover, mind you)."

This is true, I heard about it on a psychology class I had.
The DJ actually wanted to stay 8 days awake playing music, but on the third or fourth, he started seeing spiders and things crawling up...
This happens because when you don´t go through REM sleep, you start seeing the things you should see during the time you sleep.
On an experiment, people slept 8 or so hours a day, but when the machine registered they entered REM, they would be awaken. They all soon started hallucinating.
Also, if you don´t get enough sleep, your personality will change somehow and you won´t recover it, like happenned to this DJ.
Go see a doctor

Ya know, there's this little button we have that you can use to EDIT your posts instead of posting a new reply. SPAMMER.

I just did a urine test on this thread, and I detected 13 milliRoDs of Spam in the last 7 posts alone.

Yes I bleieve it was Ken that came up with that.

Aww... come on Ken... I gave you full credit and you still want to bump reputation points! I'm also picking up 34 Fletchpacs of annoyance, and your MegaSiggy readings are off the charts!

Sigh sean, its not funny when you try to copy other people's jokes

jinx, does the ability to stay up like that come naturally? other than caffiene, do you use any other techniques to stay awake? I always stay up all night when friends stay over, but for some reason or another I can't keep myself awake past the next 48 hours. If you could help me... I would enjoy it!