7 replies to this topic

[Bart]

People (and animals) convert food into fuel, which provides energy, right? Unless I'm mistaken (not a biologist), we need to sleep because this conversion process simply can't keep up with the rate we consume that fuel while awake. This makes me think, don't they research methods to make this conversion more speedy, so people wouldn't have to sleep, and why not?

Imagine how much lifestyle would change if you didn't have to sleep. Any comments from the people who are learned in these matters?

[duke_Qa]

its more likely to have something with our brains defragmenting so to speak, and other bodily functions like regeneration and growth of cells. but its quite interesting that scientists havent found proper proof of what sleep is directly good for.

but your theory on regenerating fuel for our bodies does not sound very plausible in this connection. our bodies are quick enough to process what food we get into us quick enough for us not to starve. if sleep was needed for us to aquire energy from food then people would probably be dying of hunger without sleep within 24 hours of no sleep.

http://en.wikipedia....Sleep#Functions


personally i look upon sleep as a sort of mental meditation for the brain to cool off after jogging around doing alot of annoying stuff for a day. kinda like being in a party with alot of annoying people i guess, you need a time-out after a while


on the topic of reducing our need for sleep. i remember a tale about some politician who was fighting a majority of other politicians on some case for several days with no breaks. this politician had gotten some sort of meditation-training which taught you how to go into a sort of trance which effectively doubled the amount of rest you would normally get. basically the politician argued with the others for 4-6 hours, then took one hour off to meditate and get two hours of sleep, while the others barely had any efficient time to sleep. at the end the others caved in and the politician got his will... after like 3-5 days or something

Edited by duke_Qa, 27 May 2007 - 10:42 PM.

[narboza22]

This makes me think, don't they research methods to make this conversion more speedy, so people wouldn't have to sleep, and why not?

All you need to do is inject chlorophyll into your skin and go outside, and voila, Photosynthesis! No more need to digest food for energy

[duke_Qa]

as the wiki-article says, dolphins can't become completely unconscious because they have conscious breathing, so they let half their brain sleep at the time. and since they are mammals just like us it doesn't seem impossible that we could in theory do the same with the correct procedures.

naturally the dolphins got a few thousand years of training behind them so its probably not too simple.

Edited by duke_Qa, 28 May 2007 - 10:17 AM.

[Bart]

dolphins can't become completely unconscious because they have conscious breathing

so they can actually hold their breath until they suffocate? (which people can't do)

[duke_Qa]

more like if they fall completely asleep they will start to breathe, which would be bad since they usually are underwater.

[Bart]

but doesn't conscious breathing mean that they actually have to do the movement by themselves, just like we move a leg or an arm. unlike people who breathe automatically

[duke_Qa]

i would guess the conscious part for a dolphin is to hold his breath while submerged by shutting his breathing-hole. if he falls unconscious he would lose control over holding his breath and the body would prolly try to breathe and it would work badly.