Who needs sleep when you can take a pill?
The New Scientist is running an article on new methods of staying awake longer, and conceivably in the future skipping sleep entirely for short periods. Today we rely on caffeine, nicotine or pills and powder to keep us alert into the night or get us back up and functional after a short sleep. The downside is the eventual crash. We don’t eliminate sleep, we just postpone it. I’ve lost count of the all nighters and 80+ hour weeks that have resulted in me going to bed on Friday evening and not surfacing until Sunday afternoon.
Modafinil, a drug initially created to combat narcolepsy (where you spontaneously fall asleep during the day, often at inappropriate times), is promising 36+ hours of wakefulness followed by 8 hours of sleep, or the ability to function long term on 5 hours a night. Could we soon end up only sleeping on the weekends? I can see college students loving this when exam time looms!
By gary | 23. Nov 2006 | Miscellaneous | No Comments »