DescentBB

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_1249864.html

Regardless of its validity, I've heard contradicting statements as to the side effects of long term sleep loss, most also hinging upon being "tired," which doesn't seem very fair.

Over winter break, as I got to bed later and later, I eventually thought to try just skipping a night. My biologicial clock got messed up, and I got about 7 hours sleep over 4 days, which hadn't been unprecedented in my life, but in this case I slept and woke naturally (although not at traditional times), and didn't feel tired at all. I thought about what it would be like if I could extend this over longer periods of time. If I didn't feel the least bit tired, what else would I have to worry about? Any thoughts?

there's this drug my chemist friend tells me about that you can take INSTEAD of sleeping. you just don't need to sleep with it. ★■◆●ing weird.

i once sleep deprived myself with overdoses of insulin (and a kitten) for a week or so, until i realised wtf i was accidentally doing. i do believe my condition that saterday morning was what they call "psychosis". in a total dreamworld while walking around the house completely awake, i was talking about ladders and fish in ceilings.

you shouldn't need to worry, your body will generally eventually naturally take as much sleep as it needs. if your body starts crashing, you will simply not wake up for ages as your body catches up. nothin you can really do about it (cept for unnatural methods such as mentioned above).

on one forum i frequent, in one thread ppl were conducting experiments in self sleep deprevation. they said that after the first 20hours or so it was ok, you get really bored at night, your eyes get sore (they normally get rest while you sleep duh), and DON'T TAKE CAFFINE OR YOU WILL NOT LAST.
i think one got to 72hours, but i'd have to read through it all again. yeah i trust these people.
here's the thread

How legit is that site? I won't even comment on the guy claiming he hasn't slept in 20 years, it's ridiculous. For me, I have to have at least 7-8 hours of sleep a night, since I'm big into weight lifting and that's the prime time for the muscles to repair themselves. I read once that people who sleep 6-7 hours a night live longer than those who sleep 8 or more. A recent Newsweek talked about how researchers are now realizing that sleep is mostly for the mind, not the body, so I dont' know how sharp someone would be off 2-3 hours a night. On a more practical note, what are you doing with your life that you can't afford 7 hours a night? I would go crazy if I had to busy myself 20 hours a day.

I used to think it impossible for myself to get less than 8 hours and not be tired. Since I took on a 2nd job I have been constantly getting 3 - 4 hours per day and I work a 7 day week. I found my body just crams all the sleep I used to get over an 8 hour period into a couple of hours.

eg. If I sleep for an hour it feels like 3 hours.

I don't drink caffine, milk or any other sleep affecting substances.

Do you ever feel like it's too much day? I would think with only 3 hours a night, it would start to feel like one long day, with no real break.

roid, i heard about that drug too, but what i heard is that you still have all the EFFECTS of not having slept, you just don't feel them.

ionno tho

Yes.. I have noticed that things I have done only the day before seems like several days ago.

When you do not sleep, you go nuts because of the lack of R.E.M. (not the band ). You're mind processes information aquired during the day during the R.E.M. If it cannot, you go nuts.

So this guy is either a nutcase (probably because he didn't sleep for a long period of time, 20 years ago), or he really didn't sleep for 20 years, and there's something screwy with his head, so he does not require sleep.

Either way: There's something screwy with his mind.

BigSlideHimself wrote:How legit is that site?

It isn't.

Wasnt there a "test" where a guy experimented with the statement that "YOU HAVE TO sleep after 2 weeks"

He reached a week and a half, and started to lose the plot - dopeyness, clumsyness, depression from no energy, etc usual side effects - but it was found he never got ahold of himself again.

A year or 2 later he killed himself... i think I remember reading that here sometime ago...

*snores*

You'll die if you go for more than two weeks without sleep. In lab studies of rats that were sleep deprived for extended periods of time, the brain actually hemorrhages.

I once read in the Guiness Book of World Records that someone had gone without sleep for many years. In order to get into the book, everything has to be documented with witnesses....i suppose its possible then.

roid wrote:i was talking about ladders and fish in ceilings.

Surely that's just normal for you roidster?

I've done my share of sleep-deprivation. Usually I have the stress of school driving me, and I can go with low amounts of sleep for a good time. I have found two things. First, my ability to think and observe is impaired. Second, I eventually take the lost sleep back, usually over breaks. I've slept 12 hours a night for like 2 weeks straight over breaks.

I've had a few stretches of sleep deprivation in college and found that I too will regain lost sleep in one big dose afterward.

The most striking memory is the time I went somewhere between 40-45 hours without sleep, then slept for 19 hours straight when I crashed.

I question the veracity of that site's reporting.

I once stayed up 55 hours straight. Before you say "wow", it was at a LAN party

I'm a bit of an insomniac, and I've gone a fair number of nights without any sleep. Without fail, I feel like crap all day and don't really get anything done. I've never gone two nights in a row though, I'm always dead tired the next night and wouldn't even think of the consequences of going longer. Also, nowadays I have school and I work out a lot, so I need a lot of sleep anyway to function.

I've done a lot of research about sleep myself, from lucid dreaming to sleep deprivation. You only need a full night's sleep to recover from missed sleep...even if you miss 2 nights, or 3 nights worth of sleep. Beyond that I am not certain. Interesting factoid: If you starve yourself of sleep by sleeping less than your optimal amount, the sleep debt is cumulative. Essentially, after 2 weeks of missing an hour's sleep, you'll suffer consequences similar to not sleeping for 2 nights in a row. These symptoms are masked by a lot of things...As long as your attention is engaged you'll be fine, but you'll find yourself having difficulty staying awake in some classes, in boring meetings, or in the passenger seat of a vehicle, on the bus, etc.

The optimum length "A full night's sleep" varies from individual to individual as well.

6 hours is my normal minimum
7.5 is optimal
9 is wonderful, but I really just spend the last 1.5 hours essentially being semi-conciously lazy, so I usually just get up and do stuff instead.

When I was in High School & College I pulled a lot of all-nighters that turned into 48 hour stretches. 72 hours is no fun, and I've never been past that. These days, I catnap in situations where I don't want to sleep a lot, and I've found it very effective. An hour's sleep can be very refreshing, and help extend your comfortable wake time. It takes some practice to get this form of resting down. If you're not careful, you find yourself sleeping much longer stretches.

hrum...dbl post.

ive done 76 hours before. worked full time, full time student at the university and full time father with no babysitter. when i managed to get my hands on a babysitter i managed to sleep about 11 hours, then got up and went pee, got some water, and slept about 5 or 6 more.

i think its very possible to go long periods of time without sleep, if you have the will to fight it off. 20 years though? i doubt that. a month is bordering impossible in my book. it does catch up to you, or at least to me.

My guess is that the guy's brain shuts partially down when not in use, if this is legit at all. Thus, when he's "reading" at night, really, the better half of his brain is asleep.

i have to concentrate to read (well... to retain what i read). i couldn't do it while quazi-sleeping

I just remembered something I read somewhere, about a person who had had their corpus callosum (sp?) severed (that's the brain tissue that connects the two hemispheres). In that case, each hemisphere was semi-autonomous, and 'sleeping' brainwaves could be measured off of one or the other at times even if the individual was apparently wide awake.

WarAdvocat wrote:Interesting factoid: If you starve yourself of sleep by sleeping less than your optimal amount, the sleep debt is cumulative. Essentially, after 2 weeks of missing an hour's sleep, you'll suffer consequences similar to not sleeping for 2 nights in a row.

Another interesting factoid: hours of extra sleep needed to recover is not a 1-to-1 ratio to the sleep debt you accumulate. In other words, if you accumulate 20 hours of sleep debt, it doesn't take 20 extra hours of sleep to recover from it. I don't recall the ratio, but it's somewhere around 1-to-3 if I remember right.

WarAdvocat wrote:These days, I catnap in situations where I don't want to sleep a lot, and I've found it very effective. An hour's sleep can be very refreshing, and help extend your comfortable wake time. It takes some practice to get this form of resting down. If you're not careful, you find yourself sleeping much longer stretches.

Yea, I've got a pretty serious case of insomnia going right now, and I'll pretty much catch 20 minutes of sleep any time I have the chance. It really extends your capability to perform.

I've found I'm more and more able to sleep fully conscious of my surroundings, I even open my eyes and look around if I notice something that might mean I should wake up. I've always been able to do this (not at will, generally when I'm uncomfortable with my environment I find it happens) and now it's becoming somewhat useful, as I can know when it's my stop and get up if I'm sleeping on the train for example.

Foil wrote:Another interesting factoid: hours of extra sleep needed to recover is not a 1-to-1 ratio to the sleep debt you accumulate. In other words, if you accumulate 20 hours of sleep debt, it doesn't take 20 extra hours of sleep to recover from it. I don't recall the ratio, but it's somewhere around 1-to-3 if I remember right.

My understanding is that one "normal, full night's sleep" is enough to recover from a 'normal' sleep debt.

WarAdvocat wrote:I've done a lot of research about sleep myself, from lucid dreaming to sleep deprivation. You only need a full night's sleep to recover from missed sleep...even if you miss 2 nights, or 3 nights worth of sleep. Beyond that I am not certain.

Strangely enough, however, I can't find anything to back up my understanding...can anyone link anything which might support or undermine my thesis?

I've gone to a lock-in, and not slept at all that night. The next night, with my usual 8-10 hours, I was back up and going as if nothing had happened.

Stryker wrote:...my usual 8-10 hours...

Whew.. I was beginning to think I was the only one here who needed at least 8 hours a night.

I "need" about 8.5 hours of sleep a night, though I prefer 10.

I have about 4 a night.

Here's a certain thing to consider though: sleep is when you're short term memories get written to your long term memory - would going without sleep compromise everything you'd learned that day?

Sounds fake