AIBU to think it's fascinating that humans NEED sleep, and

[bbcessex]

To wonder what life would be like if we didn't?

I love my bed but often wonder what an alternative life spent round the clock would feel like!!

Years ago ( maybe about 15 years ago?) There was a social experiment/ reality show on tv where contestants lived in a house and had to stay awake, anyone remember that?

It was a bit like big brother but you got eliminated if you fell asleep. I can't remember what the outcome was or whether anyone managed it but i definitely remember people went a bit mad.

It was called Shattered hosted by Dermot O Leary and they did the same task in one of the Big Brother series but they chose to fail it on purpose and went to bed instead.

After my mum died I was awake for 4 days straight, with no naps.
I was wired due to the shock.

I felt ok if I'm honest, didn't need to do anything to stay awake. My brain just wouldn't let me sleep.

I had one hell of a crash on day 5 though. Hysterical sobbing, maniacal behaviour. I scared the life out of my poor dad.
Went to the GP who prescribed some tablets, got home, took 2 and was completely knocked out for nearly 18 hours.

Those 4 days blurred into a massive mess and I was very confused when I woke up from the sleeping pill slumber (not helped by the grogginess that they'd caused.)
It was terrifying just how quickly I turned from 'functioning' to 'lunatic' from lack of sleep.

"So how much does modern life interfere.? " @amigababy

LOADS, according to Matt Walker. After reading the book we've gradually started switching to smart bulbs which give us bright bluer light in the mornings and dimmer redder in the evenings.

We've been going to bed super early too, and trying to give ourselves an 8 hour sleep opportunity.

But we've still got young DCs who don't cooperate. And years of waking to kids means I wake up at the slightest noise now. But it's got to be better than before!

This thread is really interesting. I'm used to waking up at 7 now for work and still do on the weekends. If my 5 year old is upset in the night I'm up like a shot. I hear mum and I'm up out of bed before I've even fully opened my eyes. Kids do weird things to your sleep.

i would love it if we didn't need to sleep at all or maybe just for 20 minutes.

Sleep is such a waste of time. I really do not understand why so many people love going to bed.

I have to force myself to go to bed most nights. I always read which helps make me drowsy. I need about 6 to 7 hours sleep but there are so many other things I could be doing.

Those jerks when you are just about to fall asleep are the weirdest things! I also nearly went a full 72 hours without sleep partly because I was extremely ill and afraid l was going to die! Irish A and E's are a nightmare literally especially when you are on a trolley in a corridor beside a door that was banging every couple of minutes when hospital staff came through it! Had the best anesthetic experience of my life when they eventually found me a bed, a couple of units of blood and removed my womb ovaries and other bits and bobs that were basically causing me to haemorrhage. I woke up in recovery and felt fantastic!

Most animals need sleep.

I'm an insomniac by nature. When I'm not sleeping well my brain is useless, I make stupid decisions, I hurt all over and I hate everyone. I have no curiosity about what would happen if i didn't sleep at all for more than one night.

I like to think of dreaming in particular as defragging our brains. I'm sure as AI continues to develop there'll be an App or a plugin or a chip at some point that will make sleep much less necessary for humans.

Wasn't it Margaret Thatcher who only used to sleep 4 hours a night or something? Explains such a lot....

I remember the cat experiment. They actually cut their eyelids off

Eurgh. I'm sure that'll make its way into my dreams, tonight.

I feel like I’ve found my people! I adore sleep and also find it completely fascinating. I’m one of those lucky people that can sleep absolutely anywhere. I close my eyes and very quickly I am asleep, I enjoy noise whilst I sleep too so I play white noise at night. Doing shift work really messes with your body clock. I’ve found that even if I get 8/9 hours after a night shift you never sleep as well as you would at night. I also find it bizarre when you wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. I always like to think they someone has woken me when that’s happened.

I'm the same as you up to a point @lynsey91 but the thing is that by about 8 or 9pm, I'm now physically exhausted, even if my brain isn't going to properly switch off without persuasion (usually of the amitriptyline kind, though the odd glass of wine can help). I end up vegging out in front of the telly. If i fall asleep, you can bet your boots I'll wake up just after midnight and take at least 2 hours to not quite settle in bed and wake up feeling like trash.

@PickAChew

Can you give the source of those unethical sleep experiments?

I found it really shocking and upsetting to stumble across these statements without warning, and have never heard of them before.

Can you give us a link to them please?

Any minute now just google it. There’s ones where they’ve cut the eyelids off cats. Another one on rats where they were experimenting how long it would take for them to die without sleep. To owe them awake They put them in a box with sloped sides and water in the middle. If the rats fell asleep they’d ski dew down the sides into the water and wake up as they started to drown

I just didn't like seeing such brutal cruelty posted on a thread without warning! Did you not see that bit, that I found it upsetting to read? That youbgekt the need to say it again, is that supposed to be funny, as its not kind.

And links to research is standard if you're going to be quoting research studies.

@AnyMinuteNow calm down if you want to know know the source Google it yourself. Sorry people aren't considering your feelings before they post something.

There’s a book, the science of sleep and dreams. A bit heavy (unless you are that way qualified!) but mainly fascinating

Its the responsibility of the poster to quote source, standard, not to be lazy and make the claim without any backup.

How patronising with your calm down shite.

Trying to deny me my feelings, huh? Shut me down. Don't think so.

@AnyMinuteNow it's an internet forum not an academic paper referencing is not a requirement. I'm simply saying your reaction seems abit ott considering no one else on this thread has taken such offence. It's not a nice thing to have happened to the cats but there were plenty of unethical experiments carried out in past research and still goes on today with animal testing. It's unfortunate but it happened and the other poster was simply saying so.

*Reality / science aside, our LOVE of sleep, instead of / in addition to our NEED for it, is another thing that distinguishes us from other mammals

I have no scientific basis for saying this, but I suspect koalas, cats and sloths love it too!

I agree it's horrible to read of such things happening to animals without warning.

I remember the TV programme Shattered. One of the contestants went a bit loopy and thought he was the prime minister of Australia. And they made them sit there and watch videos of people yawning :o

I also felt aware that time had passed when I had a general anaesthetic, is that unusual? I felt like I'd slept for about 8 hours but when I looked at the clock it had only been one.

Tinatsarina
If theres no link. It didn't happen. No need to dramatise.

The person saying it is responsible for evidencing it, not every single person independently reading it to go off and find some sort of evidence to support what someone else says.

AnyMinuteNow this is a chat forum or a peer reviewed journal or an academic essay... It's not necessarily standard to provide links to sources for things they remember once reading, on a chat forum. Different expectations, different registers and all that.

What would happen if we didn't need sleep is a large element of the plot of John Paul Satre's 'No Exit'. It's where the quotation "hell is other people" comes from, but actually the premis is more that hell is oneself - never having a break from yourself, not even to blink let alone sleep...

*Sartre's

Like i say, no link to back it up, it didn't happen.