Insomniac Thread #3 - Join the PF World Now!

[franznietzsche]

Normally i start these at 4 in the morning, but i was busy at 4, so i'll start it now. its 7:36 and i have yet to sleep since thursday night. And i just finished some morning coffee. Mmm, coffee. Any kindred spirits in the PF world this morning?

 

[Monique]

I was out doing groceries at that time..

 

[Knavish]

Why do so many brag about this nowadays? I don't know.. I for one like sleep - it's refreshing! If I don't get about 7 hrs. of sleep a night, I just feel wasted. But whatever.

 

[Smurf]

sleep is a weakness

 

[PerennialII]

Feel like have completely lost the rhythm during the last couple of weeks ... been going with tops 2-3 hrs at random intervals for quite a bit of time (...and showing in efficiency)... sleeping is pretty much the best hobby I know of, would just like to have a better 'relationship ' with it.

 

[Monique]

sleep is a weakness

not sleeping is a weakness

 

[Soilwork]

Yeah sleeping is so relaxing :)
I get about 10 hours a day unfortunately...sometimes more.
But i really don't understand how people (unless they have insomnia) can stay awake until 7 or so in the morning.
Well unless you have an assignment due the next day as well.

 

[SOS2008]

Normally i start these at 4 in the morning, but i was busy at 4, so i'll start it now. its 7:36 and i have yet to sleep since thursday night. And i just finished some morning coffee. Mmm, coffee. Any kindred spirits in the PF world this morning?

Oh wow--you know if you keep this up you could start to hallucinate. This has been used as a form of torture, called sleep deprivation.

 

[JamesU]

The most I've ever stayed up is 24 hours. Inbetween, I got some light sleep, but it didn't affect how I felt. :zzz:

 

[franznietzsche]

Oh wow--you know if you keep this up you could start to hallucinate. This has been used as a form of torture, called sleep deprivation.

I'm going to start?

I don't think there is an affect from sleep deprivation and high caffeine doses i haven't experienced yet (well, except death i suppose).

Why do so many brag about this nowadays? I don't know.. I for one like sleep - it's refreshing! If I don't get about 7 hrs. of sleep a night, I just feel wasted. But whatever.

No respect.

Bragging?

No, more like i was bored, and when i get bored after not sleeping, i make threads about insomnia. Thats all really.

I'm far more productive when i don't sleep actually, i spend that time getting stuff done instead. No where near a sufficient number of hours in the day for me to sleep too.

 

[Monique]

I'm far more productive when i don't sleep actually

Yeah, and people who drink say they are better drivers.. you must have a second life if you are so much more productive than other people AND don't sleep (what do you do with all that extra time?). I think you can work much more efficiently when having enough sleep, so there is no need to work long hours.

 

[honestrosewater]

Is no one else still awake around here? And you call yourselves insomniacs- tsk, tsk. Edit: Oh, woops, I was too tired to look at the time on your posts.

 

[franznietzsche]

Yeah, and people who drink say they are better drivers.. you must have a second life if you are so much more productive than other people AND don't sleep (what do you do with all that extra time?). I think you can work much more efficiently when having enough sleep, so there is no need to work long hours.

I didn't say i was more efficient. To the contrary, things tend to take longer individually, i just get more of them done. I am more efficient when i sleep. But i still get more done in a 2 day period without sleep than a 2 day period with sleep.

Of course I'm still awake honestrosewater. This is my thread after all, why would i sleep? I was just busy indulging in some WoWcrack with a friend and fellow insomniac down the hall.

 

[cronxeh]

you need to stay awake for 5-6 days to start hallucinating, and even then its a sign that you are getting closer to death

 

[Knavish]

I didn't say i was more efficient. To the contrary, things tend to take longer individually, i just get more of them done. I am more efficient when i sleep. But i still get more done in a 2 day period without sleep than a 2 day period with sleep.

Well, that does sound like a sweet theory (even though it's hard to say). But wouldn't you agree that you become less efficient the longer you stay up? Then, eventually, you will be able to get more done with less time and more efficiency (that is, sleeping). What now? Sleep? How long? I don't know.. You do what you want; I'm going to sleep during the night.

Of course if you mean 'get more done' in regards to a game.. time is probably more important that efficiency.

 

[Sempiternity]

sleep is a weakness

Sleep is a benefit.

"People who sleep well, in general, are happier and healthier,'' he said. "But when sleep is poor or inadequate, people feel tired or fatigued, their social and intimate relationships suffer, work productivity is negatively affected, and they make our roads more dangerous by driving while sleepy and less alert.''

I didn't say i was more efficient. To the contrary, things tend to take longer individually, i just get more of them done. I am more efficient when i sleep. But i still get more done in a 2 day period without sleep than a 2 day period with sleep.

Heh, that is exactly what psychologists and other scientists attribute as today's modern 24/7 society.

"In an increasing 24-hour society, people are staying up much later,'' he said. "They can go to a 24-hour pharmacy or supermarket. They can do anything at any time of the night and day. That can impact on people's decisions to stay up later watching TV, doing work, being on the Internet.'

http://livescience.com/humanbiology/ap_050329_sleep.html

Sleep helps to rejuvinate your body as well as sort out all the information gathered throughout the day that your brain stores.

In Visions, Michio Kaku explains how sleep is beneficial to the mentalities of advanced neural nets (such as our own).

Hopfield discovered that his neural networks reproduced many of the properties of dreams identified long ago by psychologists, who found that we need to sleep and dream aftera series of exhausting experiences. he found that if he filled a neural net with too many memories (i.e., valleys), then the system began to malfunction from overload--i.e., the amount of time it took to access different memories began to become increasingly unequal. It began to malfunction in recalling previously learned memories. In fact, unwanted ripples began to form on the surface of the terrain that did not correspond to any real memories at all. These ripples are called "spurious memories" and correspond to dreams. Unlike real valleys, they do not represent real events, but are composed of fragments of existing memories.

In order to eliminate these spurious memories, he would add a small disturbance to the system, abruptly changing the terrain (so thee ball would be thrown out of a valley and would roll once again). The system was then allowed to settle down again into a state of deep energy minimization. Hopfield says this corresponds to sleep.

After several episodes of dreaming and sleeping, the system "awakened" refreshed--i.e., it stopped malfunctioning and could ercall all its memories at the same rate.

If Hopfield is right, then perhaps all highly developed neural nets, mechanical or organic, must dream in order to process their memories. Whenever a neural net is overloaded, it necessarily begins to act abnormally, creating memories that are not real--i.e., dreams consisting of random fragments of real memories. The system sleeps to cleanse itself of these fake ripples or dreams.