A sleepless future? Maybe after a nap

I shouldn’t have done it. I had decided to stay up for 24 hours without the aid of energy drinks or coffee to make a point about the future of sleep, and 12 hours in, I was already regretting my decision.

However, an article in New Scientist, an international science magazine, discussed the possibility of 24-hour living ““ the ability to work and play without the need for sleep, with no side effects or repercussions.

Unfortunately for me, in order to do so I’d need gene therapy, experimental medicine or expensive equipment. However, since I have none of that stuff, a column about the future of sleep in a sleep-deprived haze will have to do.

Russell Foster, a sleep researcher at Imperial College London, says in the article, “In 10 to 20 years we’ll be able to pharmacologically turn sleep off. Mimicking sleep will take longer, but I can see it happening.”

Most of us have pulled a few all-nighters. But after reading the article I began to wonder what society would be like without a requirement to hit the sack every night. In fact, a day where I stayed awake for 24 hours without using any coffee or chocolate to keep me up sounded interesting and fun.

I started at 11:37 a.m., but it wasn’t until about 2 in the morning when I began to start rationalizing, saying things like, “It’d make plenty of sense to lie down right now.”

But I soldiered on without coffee or chocolate to bolster my resolve and boldly continued to procrastinate.

I spent much of the extra time awake watching Internet TV and thinking about what it would mean to have a culture with no sleep.

Around 3 a.m. my eyes started to ache and I realized I should do more research on this column.

The experiment didn’t seem so fun at 4 a.m., when the couch I was sitting on started looking more and more inviting. I could have been asleep in my warm cozy bed, but no, I had to make an important stance on sleep that was gradually becoming more hazy as I grew tired.

Since I’m tired anyway, let’s imagine a sleepless culture as predicted by New Scientist. People would obviously still need to rest after using energy during strenuous activity, but eliminating the need for sleep would change certain industries. Starbucks and its caffeinated brothers would fade, as well as all forms of sleep aids.

It’s 4:54 a.m. and my eyes are getting very heavy. I’m getting a little wobbly and my vocabulary is losing its … goodness. I start repeating myself. I start repeating myself.

Back to a world that doesn’t need sleep. Aside from some industry fallout, employers will begin to require longer hours from their workers, and there will be no major reason for employees to head home for long periods of time.

Unfortunately, that would put a lot of mattress salesmen out of work. Mmm. Soft, soft mattresses.

At 5:30 a.m. I notice the redness of my eyes in the mirror and I’m seriously considering sleeping.

In my sleep-deprived state I argue that eliminating the need to sleep would help society. It would allow medical professionals to spend more time helping patients and curing diseases, construction crews more time to build. It would give us more time for learning, for fun, for life.

It’s 7:30 a.m. and I’m the biggest wuss in the world. I have to take a nap. I couldn’t even make it a full 24 hours without coffee or chocolate.

I pass out on the couch feeling foolish and dreaming of a better time when staying up late doesn’t mean feeling like you’re going through a war.

If you almost nodded off reading this column, e-mail Crandall at jcrandall@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.

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