Beej said:
I'll just spoil the fun by pointing out this is a well-documented psychological phenomenon called microsleep that occurs in very sleep-deprived individuals. Its weird. For anyone that's never really been that tired, try staying awake for 4 or 5 days straight. It does no lasting harm to your body or mind, but you'll be pretty f**ked up after about 2 days...
Thanks. I'd figured it might have a name, but I'd never learned what it was (my last course in psych was in high school - about 20 years ago...)
Two days is about the limit for normal altertness, 4-5 days won't cause harm (but you think it will, if you ever make it that far...) and I think you start hallucinating around 7-8 days. 10 or more fairly guarantees a "psychotic episode" - but even that can be recovered, with sufficient deep sleep.
As I recall, it's not the
body that needs sleep - it can get by with simple "rest," or "idle time" where it isn't doing anything. It's the mind that needs sleep - and it wants REM sleep. Dreaming is a sort of "mental housecleaning" that allows the mind to process and either store or discard the events of the day.
There's also a phenomenon called "instant REM," where someone goes right into REM sleep without progressing through the intervening stages - this is also common in people who are expected to maintain high levels of altertness for extended periods of time, with infrequent and unpredictable sleep breaks. It's the mind's adaptation to not having enough time for "housecleaning" - so it goes right into it without the normal "preamble." I seem to recall that "instant REM" sleep can occur at times when it is needed - but normal sleep is also possible under normal conditions.
Am I remembering right, or am I off base, Beej?
5-90
