[extropy-chat] Sleeplessness

[Johnius]

http://www.dailytelegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=/health/2004/01/06/hwake06.xml
  The 44-hour day

A new prescription drug that can stave off sleep for
hours - with no side-effects - could transform the way
we live. The armed forces already use it; others, from
new mothers to shift-workers, might benefit too. So
what effect did it have on Julia Llewellyn Smith over
the party season?

It's 4am, I've been up for 20 hours, but I don't feel
tired. I'm not at a wild party, nor rocking a wailing
infant, nor am I lying miserably in bed cursing my
insomnia. I am sitting at my desk paying my bills on
the internet as if it were mid-afternoon. There is
none of the usual roar of traffic from outside, just
my keyboard tapping into eerie silence. I call friends
in Australia - where it's mid-afternoon and they're
very surprised to hear from me. I put some washing in
the machine, then paint my toenails. I look at the
clock: 4.45am. I haven't yawned once.

The reason for my alertness is 200mg of modafinil, a
new prescription drug that staves off sleep for hours
on end. Unlike the drugs we've traditionally used to
keep us going, modafinil appears to have few, if any,
side effects. While coffee-drinkers shake and
amphetamine-users jabber aggressively, on modafinil I
feel calm, focused - and able to work all night.

According to Leon Kreitzman, author of The 24-Hour
Society, drugs like modafinil will transform society.
[...]


	This reminds me of the scifi novel I read called
	_Beggars in Spain_, where an experimental generation 
	of humans had no need to sleep.  With 8 more hours
	per day, they learned and experienced much more, 
	and so accelerated their own development/intelligence.
	They also effectively lived 50% longer than ordinary
	humans sleeping away a third of their lives.

	It also reminds me of a booklet I read several years
	ago by a Mensan claiming to have devised a program
	for regular humans to get by well on just 3 hours of
	sleep / night.  Certain dietary changes were necessary
	(e.g., to avoid sleep-inducing foods), as well as 
	motivation (e.g., have extremely interesting projects
	to work on that are so exciting you want to get right
	to them upon waking).

	I've read that a few genius types (e.g., Edison, Fuller),
	managed to get by on minimal sleep for extended periods
	by taking 5 minute cat naps on site, springing right back
	into the work after each nap ...

	As long as such sleep reductions don't interfere with
	needed bodily repairs (for longevity) and psychological
	rest/reorganization (REM sleep), such practices seem
	at least somewhat extropic to me.

	Johnius, who hasn't yet evolved to Sleeplessness...