The initial thought is "I could accomplish so much more" but wouldn't you still want the psychological separation of the days? Wouldn't you get bored, with no actual division between the days? "Yesterday, today and tomorrow" wouldn't lose their meaning altogether, of course, but do you think that being awake (and not sleepy) non-stop might create a sort of insanity in you?

Just something to ponder. I'm saying 'good night' now.

quote:

If you didn't require sleep, would you still want to sleep?

No.
Good night.

If I didn't get sleepy, I would rest long enough to recover from whatever work I'm doing but that's it.

Deep thoughts! But I'm too drowsy to consider them right now.

This has come up in the work I do. It is one of the reasons Methamphetamine is so popular.

Dreams and sleep have a restorative function for the body and soul. Analytic psychotherapy uses dream analysis as a central component in treatment. In our sleep we frequently find solutions to problems. The older one becomes,uninterrupted sleep becomes harder. Prostate issues for men, and anxiety are big factors.

Depriving people of sleep is torture, as the human body experiences hallucinations in short order.

To answer the question I would still want to sleep as a brief respite from the stresses of life. As we get older, we tend to think less about what we might accomplish and more about the meaning of life itself. There is something about being older where you look at the time you have left and not what you have accomplished. More about your purpose than your achievments.

Oh, BTW I was not a Philosophy major.

Amphetamines have too many dangerous side effects. Modafinil is the frontline anti-sleep drug for some time now (used for narcolepsy), even issued to U.S. troops when needed on certain missions.

My sleep patterns are all over the map so I wish I didn’t need sleep. That being said, if one could do without and not suffer any short or long term side effects, there are some dreams I would probably miss. My subconscious also has a neat way of providing answers to lingering questions while I sleep, but perhaps that’s part of my sleeping problem?

Anyway it’s time to try and get some shut eye... if I dream of not sleeping, I’m blaming you Para.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

There is something about being older where you look at the time you have left

An interesting juxtaposition of your remark and para's question that defines this thread.

I do think quite a bit, about the time that remains for me. I frequently ponder this when I go to bed, before I fall asleep. I welcome the rest, but I slightly resent the time that is taken from me by the need for sleep.

I enjoy rest.

Rest takes many forms. Sometimes it is similar to the clock hour that we are taught to abide by, sometimes it tracks with the natural phenomenon of making the body wake at sunrise and rest at sunset. Sometimes you have to throw out the "norms" and do things that keep you awake during the times your body tells you you should be at rest. Throughout my years I have contended with the latter more often than not.

My personal opinion is that I need a separation. I need a definition. Night and day, light and dark, morning and evening. I will say that when days begin to blend together everything gets dull. A sharp separation, even after only an hour of sleep, makes all the difference in the world to me. I have been up all night, gone to bed at 0430, woke up at 0500 and felt like a new man. And I have stayed up all night, sunrise to sunrise, and have felt like I couldn't make it another second. I need the separation.

The time my mind gets to rest, however brief, is necessary for me. I know how I act with being awake over 50 hours. I am not good. That is one of those things you tuck away for "emergency purposes only" and rest whenever you can.

Another thing the separation gets me is a count. Not a standard number thing but a way to differentiate between the last hour and the next hour. Imagine being somewhere for a finite amount of time. How do you measure your time? Spend 6-7 months somewhere. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere. How do you measure this? You get into a rhythm. Early, late, light, dark, the rhythm helps you count.

Ugg.

Sleep trivia: certain birds sleep with half of their brain still awake. So when they are a bunch of them sitting on a branch, the ones at the end can keep the outer eye / brain awake and on watch.

I'd still want to nap. Naps are great.

No, there is a ton of stuff I'd love to accomplish if I didn't sleep. I feel that way about eating too. I dislike stopping a task I'm involved in just because I have to go track down some food.

Since I retired, I've developed napping into a fine art. A 15-45min nap is delightful. The dog agrees. I'm a owl and spent most of my working life doing nightshifts and sleeping during the daylight hours. If you have any kind of a sleep disorder, this way of living would drive you crazy in short order.

I can't imagine living continuously, hour-to-hour, day-to-day, without some respite. So, yes. I'd still want to sleep.

Methought I heard a voice cry, “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep”—the innocent sleep.
Sleep that knits up the ravell'd sleave of care, the death of each day's life, sore labour's bath, balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course, chief nourisher in life's feast.
- William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act II, sc. 2

Meditation and reflection might suffice.

In a few months I hope to meander across county, then drop SE to pick grapefruit in AZ. Miles of two-lane, phone mostly off, bunking in the hatchback rear, that is close to "shutting off the world" for a decent spell of post-midlife reflection.

If my last trip was any indication of what is to come, I'll be lucky to have a single sixty-second "Ah-ha!" moment before slumbering off, staring up through the hatch window into the Milky Way.

I require seven hours at night plus a mid afternoon nap in my easy chair.
Was not always that way,was month on end where I was awake for 24-36 hours but that was a time where there was great stress in my life.

I think I'd still want to sleep. The older I get the more I enjoy naps, and the more I enjoy settling into bed at the end of the day.

I didn't and I wouldn't.
With the foggy void, I did.

Sleep deprivation, short nights, hangry, sniffles, all bad signs for me.

Some sleep remedies make for nightmares, or just weird dreams that should be written as stories.

Nowadays, I have a set pre-sleep routine.

--chris

Yep. Sometimes the dreams are memorable. Sometimes you need that break to put a crap day behind you. Sometimes you need that morning coffee and constitutional to set you right.

Yes, I think I would. I want periodic rest and respite from the stresses of life, no matter the level of or reason(s) for the stress. I actually enjoy a siesta if and when there is nothing else to occupy my time.

A 45 minute nap is essential to my equilibrium. Without it, things are not right with the world.

If I didn't need sleep, a nap would still be in order just to keep my balance with life.

I would love some sleep. Too much pain last night to sleep. I think I fell asleep by 3AM.