How did this thing go? I disagree with the "get, plenty of sleep" posters. Staying awake is a marathon, and you don't train for a marathon by staying seated a lot. For me, and I had a crazed schedule, it was nearly impossible to pull 48-60 hour shifts if I was well rested. On the other hand, if I started getting three hours sleep a night for weeks on end, then two, then one, all- and multi-nighters weren't so tough to pull off.
It's not the awake part that ends up being hardest if you are keeping active; it's the degradation to your reasoning and changes in perception. Things like, hearing someone saying something completely different to what you heard. Hallucinations can come in more than just audio and visual, there can be tactile ones like feeling someone touch you but no one did or sensing strange smells or food tasting differently than it should. Then there's the irrational thoughts like thinking people are out to get you or drawing outlandish conclusions from what would otherwise be nothing. For instance a person waving to you could be perceived as them signaling an unseen sinister person. Or "reading between the lines" and seeing threats that aren't real or thinking that that girl you are hitting on saying go away to you is really saying I'd screw you silly but I am busy on my mission with an internationally based covert government spy agency. Erm, I heard. I'm going to stop now and go to sleep. Ahh...On second thoughts screw that noise. Sleep's for some other secret agent super spy man soldier dude that isn't as James effin' Bond as me.... KKKKKKiiiiiiiiAAAAAA bitchez! Ahh ya missed it I waz too quik for ya, I'd slow it down but then ya wud know me moves and then I’d have to kill you and that weird looking parakeet I saw ya with, just in case of future threats to the whole world and anyone close by.
I just took a look at your banned list and reasons for them. I apologize in advance if my injection of crude humor and silliness at the end of my post gets construed as making silly fart noises during the acceptance speech for a new king. I was not aware that this site frowns upon that sort of thing and is more reserved for furthering knowledge and can see where the joking could potentially frustrate the focus of learning and building on current knowledge. I will leave that part of me for forums where it is acceptable and encouraged to get a bit nuts. The question in this thread did however prompt me to write in depth about my own experiences on sleep deprivation and it's various aspects that seem to recur and at around the same times to the point where your mind sets off your internal alarm clock to let you know that (x) event is going to be showing up soon. Anyway, it is quite long for most forums as at its unedited state right now is just a little under 3 pages and once it has been edited will likely end up around 3.5 pages or so. If you would like me to post it I will take the extra time to edit the paragraphs for easy reading on a screen which are best kept to a small a size as you can manage. Anyway the mechanics of how to alter an article that will be read on a screen over a paper based medium is for another thread. Have a great day and hope this finds all who read it in good spirits.:bugeye:
I have heard that moving the toes stimulates ones longest nerve pathways, thereby helping one to stay awake. But I don't know if I can agree or relate. I seem to be able move my toes with little noticeable effort than it takes to move "closer-to-the-brain" muscles, such as brow, jaw, etc.
Damn. it is about 4 days straight? I dont think is can do that. but if you sleep at least 4 hours a day, you can do it but with that much.. I dont think any energy drink can sustain you that long.
This can backfire for many of us. We don't all metabolize caffeine at the same rate. Its average half-life is four hours, so if you have a cup at lunch, by midnight you'll only have the equivalent caffeine of one ounce of coffee in your system so you'll probably sleep okay. But for some of us (for example, me) it metabolizes much more slowly. I've calculated that my half-life is about twelve hours. So if I have a cup at 10am, by 10pm I've still got the equivalent of half a cup and I don't sleep soundly. So I wake up early the next morning feeling groggy, and I need two cups to get through the day. This leaves me with the equivalent of one full cup at bedtime, so I sleep even worse. And need an even bigger dose the next morning. A vicious cycle. When I was a kid in the 1950s nobody talked about caffeine as if it was a drug, so my parents got me addicted to tea and cola without realizing what they were doing. I spent about 15 years of my life going through a cycle of caffeine intoxication (being an angry a-hole) and sleep deprivation (being a drowsy a-hole). Flunked out of college, my first wife ran away. Only my cat loved me, probably because they understand the cycle of being crazy and then lazy. I'm still a recovering caffeine addict. I have to ration it and plan out my entire week so on a day when I have to participate in an important meeting or play in a go tournament or stay up late at a concert, I'm not at the wrong end of a cycle. Fortunately as I get older I find it's not quite as powerful as it used to be, and the half-life is now shorter.
For me, the best way to stay awake is to look into a light whenever you feel tiredness overcoming you. The brain creates Melatonin (the sleep chemical) as soon as lights are dimmed, or as the sun sets (as it has for millions of years). Keep on thinking about things too, that helps keep the brain awake.
yes, hallucinations . . . and you could easily become paranoid as well. . . brough http://civilization-overview.com
