Quote Originally Posted by Sageous View Post
I've been following this thread, and I'm a little confused. There seems to be much ado about nothing going on here.

Isn't 100 hours a relatively safe amount of time to go without sleep? That's all of 4 days. I think I was awake almost that long during at least one finals week (and at least one party week after finals), and I think 100 hours is likely topped by truckers, soldiers, sailors, first-year doctors, apparently p.o.w.'s, and many others quite often. Isn't the record like, 11 days (and that guy was fine afterward)? Yes, it might bring on some hallucinations or some other neural interruption, but nothing permanent or terribly serious; nothing a good night's sleep might cure.
Nope, pretty much everything I've ever read has always pointed that sleep is absolutely beneficial except in a select few. We're not talking about taking years of your expected life (or even the same amount of damage nicotine or processed food might cause). Sleep deprivation is bad, it's not terrible but there is no need to put yourself through it. Unless signet is suffering from fatal insomnia, there is nothing stopping him from sleeping a short amount every few days (it's pretty much impossible to go without sleep unless you have a serious disorder, a lot of insomniacs suffer from micro-sleep sessions and they often don't even know).

It's almost certain that there would be lasting repercussions from extended sleep deprivation. Think about it, sleep plays a large role in restoring both physiological and mental functions, in the day time the aminergic system is activated which is said to play a major part in bodily functions like thermo-regulation and metabolism, and in the night time the acetylcholine system is activated which restores mental function, consolidates memories and weakens unnecessary synapses to preserve memory. This at first sounds fairly innocent but if you investigate it you can see a whole heap of things that immediately start screwing up.
By not sleeping, you are never giving the aminergic system a rest. The bodies cells never get a chance to go dormant and stop working, your body drops in temperature because your thermo-regulation starts to slowly fail. Since your neurons are constantly on in unnatural amounts of serotonin they start to lose their sensitivity.
Brain cells can't be repaired because the high metabolic activity causes the enzymes in your body to break down. Stress hormones are increased while growth hormones are decreased stopping the production of new brain cells etc etc

Interestingly sleep deprivation can help alleviate depression temporarily, since the serotonin levels in the brain are higher it simulates the effects of common SSRI anti depressants. The downside is that your cognitive functions are severely impaired even after a single sleepless night, probably leading you to make much more irrational decision. Even worse is that you suffer the side effects of sleep deprivation right afterwards which probably indirectly affects stress and depression.

I'm no neuroscientist but I've read a lot on the subject lately and it becomes quite clear just how essential sleep can be. Maybe your right that three or four days isn't enough to do any serious harm, it certainly isn't beneficial that much is clear.