So the other night I had a lot of homework and ended up only getting two hours of sleep. I thought I would be dead tired the next day and have to just go to sleep after my class was over at noon, but I was wide awake, or more awake than usual. So I was wondering, would it be bad if I did that every night? Cuz damn, maybe I could actually work on BASW some if I had all that extra time.

So I surfed around on google, and many sites said that you need 8 hours a day, sleep debt, yada yada. Many other sites were about people who were talking about how they only got 5-6 hours a night. But then I came across this one news site that was about a guy who got a fever, couldn't sleep at all during it, recovered, still couldn't sleep, hasn't slept in 33 years. And he's in really good condition, no health problems whatsoever. Even healthy for his age.

Imagine how awesome that would be, you could get school done in half the time, finish a starcraft map in a matter of days without neglecting anything, work 2 jobs for double the money... And no side effects. That would be awesome.

Some people say they like sleep and I don't really understand them.. I would rather do anything else that's actually productive, just sometimes I can't stay awake...

So what do you think about this? Possible? Am I just ridic?

Speaking of which,, I'm going to sleep.

here's the article if you're interested

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Feb 22 2009, 8:47 am by Mallard Fillmore.

Which part of sleep you wake up during can affect how tired you feel. I used to only get 3-4 hours of sleep a night during school simply because I would game till about 2 and get up at 6. Sleeping is one of those functions we are not quite sure why it is important. We know some of what it affects, memory among other things, but we don't know the why (as far as I know).

There is currently a sleep schedule floating around on the net where you supposedly force your body into the habit of immediately entering REM sleep. Basically you sleep for only 20 minutes every 4 hours to get the equivalent of the 2 hours of REM you'd get in an 8 hour sleep schedule with only 2 hours of scattered sleep. Your physique ultimately decides what your capable of maintaining before you notice harmful side effects. I believe it is currently thought that if you fall asleep in less than 20 minutes then your body is sleep deprived.

EDIT: There are conflicting reports on the man you mentioned by the way. Some doctors believe that those that claim to have gone without sleep for years, namely Fyodor Nesterchuk and Thai Ngoc, may actually be experiencing microsleep.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Feb 22 2009, 9:01 am by Elvang.

That's really interesting. I'll have to look up that sleep schedule.

I remember microsleeping one time while I was playing the violin. I was just standing there and then suddenly I almost fell over. I thought it was really cool at the time cuz I was actually playing my piece when I fell asleep.

Fact: If you don't sleep, you die.
Fact2: Not everyone needs the same amount of sleep.
It is not very well know why you need to sleep, but it's commonly believed that your head needs time to sort your experiences out or it'll all become messed up.
Anyone who claims to not have slept for months or longer is outright lying. Altough I find the methods Elvang mentioned to reduce the required sleeping time most interesting.

I've been known to stay up really late, usually because I can't fall asleep for some reason, and when I wake up, I'm usually uber-awake for a while. I asked my dad about this and he said it's adrenaline. Given that he probably got that information from his dad, who is a doctor, I'm pretty sure it's accurate. I've also noticed that it only lasts for about an hour or two before I get uber-tired.

Also, one time, I was having trouble sleeping for about a week. I was able to keep myself awake with a combination of willpower and coffee. I was actually doing fine, but after a while I started feeling like Dr. Franklin from Babylon 5. In other words, don't not sleep.

@Elvang: Looks interesting. I'll read it.

A time ago, I was playing some starcraft ya' know. I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second and I suddenly woke up. So I went to turn my head and it said "9:20". I was like "Holy.."

At some point I will play games for the whole day without any sleep; go to school and be hyper as hell! So I was like "Oh Okay, guess i'm juiced up today.."

Sleeping is also required to make the heart rest...

In my experience, yes. Although I typically feel rather wonderful after staying up without sleep, or getting 2-4 hours, the effects do catch up within a couple days. But then, I seem to be kinda weird when it comes to sleep anyways.
Normally, I sleep 4-6 hours a night, though I've not been doing so so much anymore ( I got nearly eight hours just now, though that's because my dog was curled up in my lap and I didn't want to disturb him... ) . Don't know why.
Last two years at school, I would get 3-6 hours a night, and felt fine, but by the last two months, I suddenly began uncontrollably oversleeping, everyday.

Heh. If I sleep around six hours, it's always hard to wake up. Left to no alarm clock, I'd sleep ~10 hours on average. It's a damn shame. If I sleep for five hours or so a few nights in a row, I start getting sleepy in classes.

I stay awake for days at a time no problem, but I also sleep for weeks at a time, too.

I think that eventually your body will eventually make up for the time lost sleeping whether u like it or not. That has been my experience at least.

he's physically fine but mentally he is probably pretty fucked up

I remember a story about a man who went on a trip in a balloon. A long trip; he was trying to set a record or something. He didn't get enough sleep, and his brain just stopped.

As to the point though. I believe our body needs sleep. Just like with a machine. If you keep running a machine with little, or no maintenance or down time it will get worn out right? It would eventually break? I don't know the exact things that happen, but you do need sleep. It rests your muscles, organs, and mind. I remember reading somewhere that a class of 6th graders were used as a population for a study. Half of them got 1 hour less sleep, and half of them got around 8 hours of sleep. The 6th graders who got an hour less sleep tested and performed at a 4th grade level. The 6th graders who got the normal and specified amount of sleep performed at their level.

After about 5 days of no sleep, you start hallucinating, having naps while your wide awake and a lot of psychological damage occurs. A radio host once tried to stay up for 3 weeks straight and failed because he was going insane and had permanent damage doen to him.

If your body forces you to do it there's probably a good reason.

Your body forces you to breathe. Now we're not going to have "see how long you can hold your breathe" contests to see how healthy it is, are we?

You may intentionally feel a burst of energy but you will break down at some point, and the longer you are up the worse you will be.

Find me someone who has died from staying awake.

As far as I know, you need to sleep because it's the only time your body can synthesis serotonin, an important neurotransmitter. (If not, I don't know, but the symptoms of low levels of serotonin correspond to sleeplessness rather well.)

The secret to sleeping really short periods of time and feeling refreshed is finding out how long your sleep cycles are - you never feel tired when you're woken from stage 2 of NREM sleep. I use this to my advantage during the school year, as I know I'm in it at about 2:45, 5:10, and 7:00 into sleeping. I just set my alarm for them, and I'm up with no grog. On weekdays, I naturally wake up just before 7:00am when going to bed at midnight because I'm so used to it.

You only really need the first REM cycle. After two, the REM cycles become pointless because they are so short.

Well, when you sleep Mennonites/ melonites (or something like that) reproduces in your brain. They are basically chemicals that balance out the brain during the dark, that way you aren't retarded (I mean that literally) another thing that can happen from lack of sleep is depression. And I won't go in detail what happens when your brain is imbalanced, it's quite obvious really.

How I know - I have problems going to sleep, at a time they used to be worse. A few years ago *possibly even just a year ago* I was staying up all night on exams. Since their was only half a day of school. I would go home sometime around 11:00 upon the exams completion, sleep until six or seven, and continue the cycle until the Exams were done. Despite me getting sleep I still felt horrible (for the same above reasons) because obviously, I was indeed sleeping, but it was during day when the melo/menonites don't reproduce.

Doesn't REM sleep increase for every cycle? Stage 1 and 2 of the sleep cycle decrease while it increases, if I'm not mistaken.

Woah! I had no idea that I had Christians in my brain. Get them out! I don't want their damn religion!