How do you feel about sleep?

gnoymyguy

Senior member
Mar 7, 2001
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watched a programme called 'Altered State' last night, and it was disturbing

the first part was about a fifties radio DJ(Peter Tripp) who decided to break the world record for hours without sleep. His target was 201hours and during this attempt he was under supervision from psychologists who monitored his behavioural changes. After 70 hours the DJ began to get aggressive towards friends, despite his normal nature of being easy-going.

As the hours went by he became delusional, seeing imaginary spiders and such. He almost killed himself when for no apparent reason he ran out into the street almost getting knocked over by a car. The unusual thing was that when it was time to do his radio show he was perfectly normal-the psychologists measured his brain waves and found that despite being awake the DJ was showing signs that his brain was in fact asleep-so when he was delusional/psychotic he was really in a dream-but unable to separate reality from fantasy.

The DJ made it to 201 hours and then slept for 24 hours-some say 12hours, waking and reporting no ill-effects. His marriage soon broke down and he lost his job, becoming a travelling salesman-his now-divorced wife stating that he had completely changed-psychologists concluding that lack of sleep had done damage to his personality permanently.

I watched part 2 & 3, two was about a person dying from lack of sleep(hadn't slept for over 6 months and degenerated into someone who could no longer respond in conversation) because he had a fatal genetic disorder and the third was about a Canadian killing his in-laws but was acquitted because it was proved that he was in parasleep(sleepwalking) but won't go into it because this post is becoming a rant

Anyway my view on sleep has been influenced by these cases-unbelievable how disturbing it is to go through a real person's experience of the process in becoming mad.

Other than being tired/no energy, have you known about the effects of lack of sleep through sleeping disorders/choice?
 

brxndxn

Diamond Member
Apr 3, 2001
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I wish I didn't need any sleep.. I swear, I need 12 hours of sleep - otherwise, I'm groggy. My friend needs like 2 hours of sleep and he'll be totally refreshed - damn him.
 

The Wildcard

Platinum Member
Oct 31, 1999
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Wow that is freaky. Yeah sleep is definately important for the body. More importantly, sleep has a huge, huge effect on your brain. I read some medical report where they took catscan's of people's brains after sleep deprivation and they found something interesting. Parts of the brain that are nomrally dormant in normal people are very active in those people who have suffered from sleep deprivation. Apparently, the brain is trying to compensate for the lack of sleep.
 

pulse8

Lifer
May 3, 2000
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Sleep is one of life's unconditional pleasures. I do not take it for granted, I cherish every second of it.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
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Sleep is the brother of death. My sleep cycle apparently evolved on Mars.
 

yellowperil

Diamond Member
Jan 17, 2000
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One of the neurobio profs I had said something like our brain goes through circadian rhythms anyway without sleep. I guess being awake too long overdrives your brain and it can't do repairs, or consolidate memories, or something. I can't remember, too tired.
 

JLindo

Senior member
Feb 18, 2001
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As for me, I can't get enough! The toughest thing to do is to go from working basically a swing shift all your life (restaurant only open for dinner) to having to work like the rest of the world, getting up at 5:30 am. Getting a good nights sleep (at least 7 hours) is a big challenge for me even after a year at this! Thank god for weekends!
 

mcveigh

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2000
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Hey I'm at work at a sleep disorders center right now!! No BS

gnoymyguy- where/when did you see that? I'd like to find that.

There are 5 stages of sleep 1,2,3,4 and REM, you need all of them in the right amounts to function properly.
Yes you can die w/o sleep. they've killed lab animals like that.

if you snore get a sleep study.
 

gnoymyguy

Senior member
Mar 7, 2001
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Actually I watched it here in Hong Kong but I think it's a British production-sorry, don't know much more because I didn'y finish watching it-2am in the morning, had to get to bed:D
 

adams

Golden Member
Sep 12, 2000
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Sleep is very enjoyable, and yet I wish it wasn't so necessary. There is so much to be done in life :)
 

lowfatbaconboy

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Oct 21, 2000
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sleep though necessary is very counter productive....nights i stay up really late i get tons done
but nights i don't stay up late i wake up refreshed(thats if i wake up past like 10)

i don't understand maybe its cuz i wake up during a certain part of my sleep cycle
but i can sleep 6-7 hours as long as i wake up after 10-11am but if i get any less than 9 hours and wake up before 9am i feel groggy no matter what
 

bolomite

Diamond Member
Oct 12, 2000
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I think I read somewhere that Michelangelo did not sleep normally, instead taking 5-6 short naps every day. Must've worked.
 

SuperCyrix

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2001
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I think sleep is very important.

During my freshman year in college, I went several times without sleep for over 72 hours and then go take a Final. After years of abusing my body like that, I now feel old. Back then, it was easy to go without sleep, but I can't do that no more.
42 hours without sleep and I feel like a puddle of water.
 

pulpp

Platinum Member
May 14, 2001
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as long as i average about 4 hours of sleep a day i am fine, it catches up to me on weekends though :)
 

SuperCyrix

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2001
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My friend blew up a $10,000 piece of equipment at work because his team pushed their limit without sleep.
 

mcveigh

Diamond Member
Dec 20, 2000
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The average human neeeds 8-9 hours each night note I said NINE and NIGHT, us bipeds were designed to sleep at night.
and while some can get by on less sleep you should try to get 8-NINE hours.

Also it is a misconception that you neeed less sleep as you get older.


lowfatbaconboy
you will get "better sleep" when you are on a normal schedule and goto sleep at a resonable hour, if you are trying to sleep at 9 in the morning your body doesn't want to. Also how you feel when you wake up can also depend on the stage of sleep you were in just before you woke up. Here at the lab we Don't get people up in the AM if the are in REM sleep, IF I do I can see how groggy they are. It's best to wake up naturally, I try to get people up after they goto a light stage of sleep or arouse on their own ( but if They are till in REM at 5:30 I start banging on the walls ;) ) Frequently the alarm wakes us up while we are in a deep sleep or rem sleep
 

Elledan

Banned
Jul 24, 2000
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Sleep is necessary to repair the nervous system. Without those repairs, massive failures occur and the organism dies.

During sleep, the brain is still processing data, which often leads to experiences we call dreams.
 

pen^2

Banned
Apr 1, 2000
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i dont mind sleep, altho i love dreams, but thats a whole different story. as impossible as it sounds, i wish i had a choice to fall asleep any time i wanted to...
 

gnoymyguy

Senior member
Mar 7, 2001
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I sometimes have problems sleeping, lying in bed in the dark, tired but not able to sleep, the time til morning is unbelievably slow. You can play games or watch a film and spend 2-3 hours easily yet half an hour at 3am is like eternity-the guy that had the genetic disorder, just after he turned 40, life was treating him well, he was a music teacher, then suddenly had this sleeping problem, which was fatal-without sleep for months it broke him down both physically and mentally-very sad to see footage of him conducting his class orchestra, making his way very slowly onto the podium-then more footage of him in hospital not able to respond to questions:( A broken man physically and mentally is very sad indeed
 

MrCodeDude

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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I think that people can last up to 48 hours without sleep, here I am, probably been sleeping 9-12 hours a day, enjoying the summer life :)
-- mrcodedude
 

kami

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
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<< Sleep is for those that do not have caffeine. >>


Caffeine puts me to sleep.