> it's possible that you'll be able to take a pill to eliminate your
            > desire to snooze"

We learned how to make meth a long time ago in the rural parts of the country, but did Science Daily write a big story about us? Noooooo.

The idea that I might lose the power to sleep terrifies me.

Sadly, it usually terrifies me when I'm lying awake with insomnia at night, and that only makes the insomnia worse.

IT IS SO MISERABLE BEING ME!

I can see toying with people's sleep drives becoming the center of some really twisted SF. I also see, connecting to the "which punk" thread of earlier, a genepunk genre picking up on this. Not just genetically modified people/animals, but screwing with gene therapy to make yourself not sleep, not feel pain, etc...

At least I'll be able to stop having nightmares about Barack Obama being a Cylon.

Using a sleep deprivation drug as a biological weapon has some scary connotations to it. The idea that your brain would never undergo sleep, and therefore would never go through the input sorting and rewiring process could have some terrifying consequences. I could see the brain trying to find other ways to deal with all of the input, and the victim ending up in a kind of a waking nightmare.

Isn't that kind of like Schizophrenia?

Risky stuff in my opinion. We need sleep for a reason!

Cortex Pharmaceuticals, along with ADHD research, has been developing compounds that keep humans awake for days *without* the side effects of sleep deprivation. The military is - no surprise - all over it. [link]

@moncapitaine:
Now that is funny. I guess you can rule out Clinton being a Cylon, she's too damn ugly.

anyone who has ever um, dreamed of never sleeping needs to read JG Ballard's Manhole 69. actually, make that anyone who's ever thought of being a guinea pig for a sleep study

@moncapitaine:
@bart430:
Instead of nightmares, you go insane and start thinking its actually true...

Besides, we all know Guliani is the Cylon.

@collinxvii: I think tampering with people's sleep drives has been in scifi before. Generally in scifi, its found to be really bad if someone with psychic/psionic/telepathic/magic powers doesn't or can't sleep. Their powers just wreak havoc everywhere, and it takes the protagonists to realize "it was THEM all the time."

But yeah, a part of me fears people messing with my sleep. Being able to skip sleep sometimes might be nice, but someone having the ability to make sure I can't sleep would be horrifying.

Is this news? I thought they had established a long time ago that sleep deprivation makes you nuts and reduces your mental capacity.

Have they ever figured out what sleep is doing? I know they can tell you the physiological effects of not having sleep, but do they know what it does from a physiological point of view? They say your brain is more at some points when you're sleeping (REM) than when you're awake, so its not "resting." Most say its processing your memories, experiences, etc. from that day, but nobody explains how.

what's interesting to me is that still no one has topped the record without sleep -- it was a radio-sponsored stunt in the 60s, with a high school kid that inevitably went bonkers. He made it just over a week, which doesn't seem that long until you think about the time you pulled an allnighter in college and imagine multiplying that feeling by seven.

@Spiral: There was an X-Files episode about it.

@braak: Yeah, I think alot of shows did it. In my mind when I wrote it, I thought of Lorne taking something to not need sleep in Angel, but it has always been so familiar. I'm sure a dozen shows/novels/movies have done it, at least.

@ARP: Well, as this study points out, sleep is changing the shape of your synapses. It's literally rewiring your brain. So it's clearly integral to brain health and development.

I always think of living beings as the most efficient form of a computer. You could certainly argue that with enough time you can map out the logic of a relatively dumb critter, but the computer would have a larger size and probably less mobile.

After reading this article, I wonder if using a mix between a HDD and a SSD would create a more efficient computer. Before you shut down your computer every night, some HDD flashes the SSD with the most accessed files/programs. SSD take a while to write to right?

After hanging with meth heads in my misspent youth, i can guarantee that lack of sleep make you go crazy. Really crazy. You needn't experiment.

That's really scary. I wouldn't want anyone messing with my sleep.

As noted in articles on [search.live.com], people who don't get enough sleep are at potential risk of developing type 2 diabetes, as well as a how of other problems (CV disease, lowered immunity)...

Evolution-hating-preacher-sez: "Oh yeah right! Now "sleep" evolves!!! What will evolve next? Breathing!!!"

@braak: There was a SNG about it also.

@Woodwater:
Ack! You mean the episode with all the clickity-clacks?? And the severed and then reattached limbs?? I was so creeped out when that first aired.

wasn't the army working on a nasal spray that did the same thing? it had something to do with research they were doing on the causes on narcolepsy... something or other. Bueller?

All this just reminds me how primitive our supposedly objective, and mechanistic 'science' really is. When it comes to neuro-physiology (BBB) most inquiry is little more than stabs in the dark. Even more so with all social sciences.

@glass: yep - read about that one

Anybody remember/read that story (fiction) about those kids that were genetically altered to not need sleep? School in the day, nanny at night. Super developmental rate. Imagine the time wasted sleeping.
I'm 32, we'll go with 7 hours...

9.3 years of nothing but sleep.

I do not sleep already. Not too big of a deal. No really...

Sleep is something I've found a certain affection for in recent years, yes, but -- to skip one night a week, say? Oh, what just another six hours of my life every now and then could do.

The most likely candidate for facilitating such a thing is modafinil. It doesn't have a stimulant effect per se -- it's a prohistimine, with an effect opposite to antihistamines. Testing shows it to be safe for short-term use -- I believe the last time I checked two days worth of sleep -- and it required no "catch-up" time. (Which is to say, if you normally sleep for seven hours, and skip a night with modafinil, then the next sleep you take should be your usual seven hours.)

If a way can be found to remove the need for slumber (with, say, daily REM periods of a few hours instead) then a huge gain in terms of time and possibly actual productivity could be in the near future...and I like the idea.

Honestly, even without any real kind of scientific research *proving* I need sleep for some physical/psychological/mental/etc reason, I'd be willing to go with a couple thousand years of evolution of the sleep drive to show that it's kinda necessary.

@Spiral: There was an episode of Angel when Lorne had his sleep removed and his id manifested itself as a result. I'm so ashamed that I know that.

@avconsumer: The story is from a book of short stories by Nancy Kress. The book is "Beaker's Dozen" and the story is Beggars in Spain. Great story from a great book by a great author.

Movie-goers are in the dark for half of the duration of the movie. What is the average duration of their sleep cycle in theaters? I guess it depends on which movie they are watching, how much production value is afforded the filmmakers, and whether the story originated from the ethers, someone's dreams, or artifacts.

p.s. Does CV disease have to do with the permeability of one's resume?

If they're studying worms brains when they're "asleep", and noticing different activity, does this mean worms dream?

Bingo

I highly recommend reading Nancy Kress' "Beggars in Spain" which deals in depth with this issue.