Thread: Drug that replaces sleep - hypothetical

There are already drugs that do this being researched, actually.

I don't think there's anything wrong with it at all. I don't sleep because I want to sleep per se, I sleep because I'm getting too tired to continue, not because I want my brain to shut up. Being an extreme night owl has also meant I'm very good at entertaining or occupying myself. This would be made even easier if most people were constantly awake as well.

Assuming it could be done with no negative health consequences I would only see this as a positive thing. It would effectively be the equivalent of giving everyone an extra 20-30 years of life (assuming 8 hours sleep per day).

Originally Posted by Photolysis

Assuming it could be done with no negative health consequences I would only see this as a positive thing. It would effectively be the equivalent of giving everyone an extra 20-30 years of life (assuming 8 hours sleep per day).

To most people that would probably be seen as a good thing. But to us, lucid dreamers, would those extra 20 years actually be worth it? No dreams?
You could obviously choose to take the pill one night, and not in another. But if you had to choose between having lucid dreams or having 20 extra years, what would you choose?
I'd choose dreams!
DREAMS FTW!

Originally Posted by TruMotion

To most people that would probably be seen as a good thing. But to us, lucid dreamers, would those extra 20 years actually be worth it? No dreams?
You could obviously choose to take the pill one night, and not in another. But if you had to choose between having lucid dreams or having 20 extra years, what would you choose?
I'd choose dreams!
DREAMS FTW!

Even if you had the maximum amount of lucid dreams possible 100% of the time, that would still amount to something like 4 hours of dreaming per night due to REM sleep only taking up a percentage of sleep. Then as you say, one can choose not to take the drug if they wanted to experiment with lucid dreaming.

As someone who finds it extremely difficult to have lucid dreams (something I find ironic given the level of control I have over them them when I do), I'd gladly take never having to sleep again unless by choice over the alternative.

Originally Posted by Photolysis

There are already drugs that do this being researched, actually.

Yep, and there's one drug available already called Modafinil. You can buy it on the net.

Oh and yeah I would choose ~20 years of lucid dreams over ~20 years of extra waking life for sure.

Originally Posted by tommo

Yep, and there's one drug available already called Modafinil. You can buy it on the net.

Oh and yeah I would choose ~20 years of lucid dreams over ~20 years of extra waking life for sure.

It's impossible that you get 20 extra years of lucid dreams, due to REM stages, but if you could lucid dream in every REM minute you had, you'd probably get around 7 extra years.