posted
Boring movies are one route to sleep; another option is the printed word. If you're trying to stay awake, then by all means avoid Russian liturature or texts on tax law.
On the other hand, there may be books that will provide special insight at this stage in your "experiment." I suppose that the works of James Joyce might become curiously lucid, and Nietzsche may be absolutely mind-blowing. Why mess yourself up with LSD when you can simply combine sleep deprivation with modern philosophy?
Incidentally, I wrote a paper on sleep when I was in college (available on request), which led me to some interesting conclusions. It was beautifully ironic that I pulled an all-nighter writing it.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm not sure IMesh can keep downloading movies at the rate at which I'm watching them.
I suppose I could just read, but the letters in my books are all blurry. Maybe I got them wet sometime and the ink ran.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
The lucid dreaming thing....a kid did an informative speech in my Public speaking class on that, but that was three years ago. I think he said if you keep a piece of paper with something written on it at all times (waking, and sleeping), And try to tell yourself to lucid dream.
He also said you'd get confused too--and to pull out the piece of paper and see if the same thing is written on it. If you can't read it, or it's different, youre lucid dreaming.
Always tried to do it. Then got lazy. Now doesn't get much sleep at all.
Posts: 463 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
This is getting less and less spectacular for me.
I mean, I suppose eventually something will have to happen.
On a down note, I set my fuzzy slippers on fire. Well, not exactly on fire, but I set them on my heater, went into the living room to play a game of Starcraft, and when I came back, they were stinking up my room and stuck to the heater.
They're okay, though, aside from some singed hair, which is tinted orange for some odd reason.
posted
There's a natural anticlimactic feel to something like this, Frisco. The end that is to come, the end that must be. If you define the goal as "staying awake," then eventually you must fail -- but if you define the goal as something like "staying awake longer than I ever have," or "til the haze makes it meaningless," or some such, then you can actually win.
Just don't let it be like the insult stalker I once saw on another forum. He made it a point to horrifically insult this other guy every time the other guy posted. When the guy being insulted refused to pay any attention to the insults, everyone realized that the first guy was completely screwed. As soon as he stopped insulting, he by default lost the pissing match.
(Man, what a loser. )
But the point is, pick your battles. Make this a valiant -- but winnable -- fight.
Posts: 14017 | Registered: May 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I do have a side goal...to stay up longer than I ever have.
But I also want to know my limit, to the extent I can with minimal variables.
I also need the practice. I drive cross-country a lot, and while I love to drive, I hate for trips to take longer than they have to.
And above all, I like to change up my sleep schedule. Probably for the same reasons I move every 4-10 months, change my facial hair biweekly, and mix up my day-to-day activities fairly often.
It's wanderlust mixed with ADD, and it's a trip.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote: also need the practice. I drive cross-country a lot, and while I love to drive, I hate for trips to take longer than they have to.
I'm all for the "know your limits," but just remember that a large percentage of car crashes have sleep deprivation as a factor. Your reaction times and cognitive function will be diminished without your even realizing it.
One of my colleagues fell asleep at the wheel and rear-ended someone in his first year of residency. (coming off a 36-hr shift) He did exactly the same thing in his third year of residency, and believe me, there was plenty of practice in between.
Luckily, nobody was seriously hurt. Unluckily, the second time he rear-ended a lawyer. Luckily, her response was to lead her congregation in a prayer for the sleep-deprived residents (a nurse from her church relayed this to us).
And even more amazingly, two and a half years later, we now have restricted work hours. Must've been a heckuva prayer.
quote: "Eyes wide shut: The dangers of sleepy driving," by MW Mahowald in Minnesota Medicine, 2000 Aug;83(8):25-30.
Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota Medical School, USA.
Abstract: Most Americans are chronically sleep-deprived. However, few people are aware of the extent to which sleep deprivation impairs cognitive functioning. In the United States, at least 56,000 motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) each year, resulting in 1,550 deaths and thousands more nonfatal injuries, are attributed to sleepiness behind the wheel. As lawsuits from fall-asleep MVCs mount, individuals, the transportation industry, public policymakers, and the legal profession are starting to take notice.
posted
Imagining that you are a long-time participant on a BBS with many imaginary people -- who, in your dream world, respond to you, which is more than the milk or the hamper do -- is not enough of a side-effect?
You're starting to believe that we're real, aren't you? Excellent. Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
As far as I know, the world record is held by Randy Gardner, a then 17-year old Californian who decided to break the world record for sleeplessness in January of 1964. He was able to stay awake for 264 hours--just over 11 days.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Aug 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Nonono. The entire graemlin is TGT. The little bits that seem to scuttle across the screen when most of the train is obscured -- well, that's just plain creepy! Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think that if you were to open a book right now, the letters would start re-arranging themselves. At least, that's happened to me before. Mark Twain can be really trippy, if you give him a chance.
posted
That's awesome. My friends and I went head to head with Super Mario Bros. last night. Of course, it took some time getting the cartridges to work. Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
My hat's off to you. Pains me to say it, but I'm not young enough to do this sort of thing anymore.
Posts: 1839 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
"Unluckily, the second time he rear-ended a lawyer. Luckily, her response was to lead her congregation in a prayer for the sleep-deprived residents"
Woulda been better if she had sued the hell out of the hospital administrators to the point that employee insurance coverage would have been exhausted. NObody should be forced to make life or death decisions under conditions producing sleep deprivation upon pain of being banned from practicing their chosen profession.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Naw, been having some naps. Otherwise, been awake considerably longer than you have. What I need is sleep, as in more than 8hours.
Nonetheless, hospital administrators are murdering patients to save a few bucks by overworking their residents.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
8 hours?! Does that mean I can start telling people I haven't slept since high school?
Although I've passed my personal best, I probably have enough adrenaline running through my veins from playing Punch-Out to stay up for about another week.
Posts: 5264 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
)![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Must've been a heckuva prayer.![[Cool]](cool.gif)
![[Mad]](mad.gif)
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
![[Laugh]](graemlins/laugh.gif)
And then thwack you again. ![[Evil Laugh]](graemlins/evillaugh.gif)
)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[Taunt]](graemlins/taunt.gif)
![[The Wave]](graemlins/thewave.gif)
