h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The other thing, I find, is to eat lots. If you more food than usual, you will be able to stay awake on little sleep. Be careful though! A really hefty meal is very soporific.

Thanks Hope!

And hello! -- since I dont believe Ive had the pleasure.
Your trick does indeed work -- and would prolly be a great edition to this entry -- unfortunately it has gone beyond my editing grasp for the moment.

A note about your point --

Its all about the body needing energy innit?
Contrary to popular belief -- sleep takes a lot of energy -- as that is when a lot of cells are being replaced memories consolodated into longterm memory etc etc...

Now the thing about the big meal is that digestion takes a lot of energy too -- and the bigmeal a little more than your body can muster if it is trying to do all those other things too -- so you wake up in the night (or in the morning if you are going to be late!

There are so many tangents to this -- like when you are sick and you dont eat, partly to let your body have more energy to self repeair ...

Hee

~Beeblefish

There is also another trick, this is illegal on most parts of Earth and works compleatly opposite in some individuals;

A joint just before bedtime and and you feel like you had enough sleep when you wake up.

I meant more, a lot of food, but spread out. For example: most people eat 3 meals a day, one being their main meal, and the rest smaller. However, when I am having a heavy day, I have three or four meals, plus snacks, all spread out. I won't necessarily eat a lot for those meals, I mean a bowl of 100g dry pasta cooked would do for one, and toast for breakfast since I can never eat a huge amount straight after I have got up. Glucose tablets are sometimes useful, but I find sudden blood sugar rush can be rather uncomfortable, so I don't use these much.

Hope

Hey SiDo

I hear ya! I think that one might be do the the relaxing effects of marijuana - so that you can fall asleep and then jump straight into REM sleep . .. this is only a theory though -- but I wouldnt mind acess to a sleep lab to test it out .. hmmm...

And I see what you mean Hope -- but I reckon that is just a case in point of good nutrition in general, and good nutrition = proper bodily homeostasis = proper sleeping.

Great entries guys!

~Beeblefish

Talking about memory consolidation during sleep - I had a weird experience a few years back with this.

I used to work in a warehouse which had a 6 or 7 digit alarm combination. I used this for about a year, opening up in the morning and closing at the end of the day.

Then one night I woke with a start and knew that I'd forgotten the code - GONE! I spent the rest of the night trying to remember it and had convinced myself I had the number by the next morning. Went in, alarm went off, police turned up, embarrassment all round. But I have become convinced that my little brain deleted the alarm code file by mistake and then woke me up to tell me.

Also, for an excellent description of the effects of lack of sleep, may I recommend 'Fire Controller', a chapter in Sven Hassel's mad war novel 'OGPU Prison'. Very scary, and very familiar to anyone who's overdone it vis a vis staying awake.

Talking about memory consolidation during sleep - I had a weird experience a few years back with this.

I used to work in a warehouse which had a 6 or 7 digit alarm combination. I used this for about a year, opening up in the morning and closing at the end of the day.

Then one night I woke with a start and knew that I'd forgotten the code - GONE! I spent the rest of the night trying to remember it and had convinced myself I had the number by the next morning. Went in, alarm went off, police turned up, embarrassment all round. But I have become convinced that my little brain deleted the alarm code file by mistake and then woke me up to tell me.

Also, for an excellent description of the effects of lack of sleep, may I recommend 'Fire Controller', a chapter in Sven Hassel's mad war novel 'OGPU Prison'. Very scary, and very familiar to anyone who's overdone it vis a vis staying awake.

I had a similar experience when the alarm code at work changed, and the new number was quite similar to my main bank card PIN number.

Though I normally have a very good memory for numbers, the morning after the alarm code change, I awoke suddenly, with the absolute and certain knowledge that I'd just forgotten my PIN number. (I was right.) It was quite a spooky sensation, rather like the 'Oh s**t' feeling after deleting a file you really wanted to keep.

It can be easier than you might think to adjust to small amounts of sleep, given some incentive. Though I really like my 8 hours/night, a few years ago I got the opportunity to do unlimited paid overtime for a few months, and adjusted within a couple of weeks to a routine of getting up at 8, going to work until midnight/1am, getting home and watching TV/reading until 4am, and going to sleep ready for the next
day.
I was really surprised how painless it all was, even 7 days a week. I am an evening person by nature, and was a little dozy some mornings, but no more so than when I was getting my usual 8 hours.

Rythmns are nice and (normally) easy to get into, although it does help if you have something to do all the time, relaxing with a book or "non-stimulating" T.V. (party political broadcasts) before bed helps your mind to wind down, and your body too.
I find that if I'm not going to get a lot of sleep (too much partying in the hotel before a load-in etc) then make sure you don't calculate how much sleep you're missing/getting, that just freaks me and I start to worry that I should be asleep as soon as possible, that just makes me agitated and LESS likely to sleep!
Also, allowing myself an extra 10 minutes (use that snooze button!), when I wake up again I'm much more refreshed than I was. That's a technique I regularly use.

You know its funny Jon -- I do that too. . .

I think that perhaps a lot of the 'tiredness' associated with waking up has to do more with rapidity than with how much sleep you have had . .

I routinely set my alarm for about an hour before I *need* to get up. It really helps me wind up (in much the same way as winding down) and I find Im much less tired.

I think the bare min for good sleep is 4 hours though -- since that is on complete sleep cycle...

~Beeblefish

Of course it doesn't help that one pattern I've found is hanging around here at 2 am!!

I've never tried the food trick, but I do know a couple from my late-nighter (up till 4:30am writing a paper and up again at 7). I took about a thirty-minute nap between 7 and 8pm (I can never go to sleep immediately, so I had to block out an hour) and then at 10 drank a Coke, as was suggested. When I drink a Coke in the morning, I have more trouble than usual going to sleep that night, so I figured a Coke in the evening would kep me going till four, easy. I am a night person anyway, but the nap and Coke helped pull me through better than I would have been able to on my own. I knew from other people's experience that the next morning, I would not feel tired at all - in fact, I might feel more chipper than usual - but that I would crash in the early evening. And that's what happened.

Just thought I'd share my experience. I never woke up after have forgotten something, but once I did wake up after having dreamed the world ended. That wasn't too fun, either, particularly as I was eight years old and in a pitch-dark room.

this is a true story...
there was this guy who didn't sleep his WHOLE life. because bassically all that sleeping is, is relaxing the brain. This guy managed to find a new techniqe to relax the brain whilst still awake, therefore he never slept, his whole life.

full-on ey? well the longest i've gone is three straight days without sleep (stress mostly kept me awake) and i seriously don't recommend it, because by the end, you are so "out of it" you forget simple things like how to walk normally.
sleep is good, stick with it.