Cure for sleep!

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I have always been fascinated by the prospect of "curing sleep". In other words, inventing a treatment or a drug that would allow a person to be able to live without sleeping, with no ill side effects. If we could devise such a treatment, it would essentially increase our life span drastically, since we spend so much of our time sleeping. I'm just curious, do you think it's possible? Know of any research being done in the area?

I personally (and not scientifically) think it might be possible, but certainly not for a long time if at all. Pretty much every animal with a complex brain sleeps in some form, so it must serve a pretty important purpose, even if we don't fully understand what that purpose is yet!

Believe me, we don't want that.

I went for a period of about ten years averaging about two hours sleep a night. I was usually a bit tired, but fully alert. I could wake up from a night's sleep of about two hours and be fully alert instantly.

I'm back to about 7 or 8 hours of sleep a night now. Although I kind of miss all the extra time I had back them, I wouldn't go back to two hours of sleep a night for anything.

I hate to break this to you... there are people who don't sleep. Who can't sleep. It is usually a hereditary disorder... and once it comes on, it is always fatal. Being unable to sleep literally kills people. Going that way isn't pretty, either. Before you die, you tend to lose your mind, or close to it. That suggests to me it isn't something you'd find a
"cure" for.

As you pointed out yourself, animals with complex brains sleep. It's part of the basic way the brain works. As different as we are from NTs, we are the same in that way. It is a very basic need, like the need to eat, or breathe.

Now, you might find a way to reduce the amount of sleep each person needs. If you could develop a way to ensure someone slept so well - when they did sleep - that, say, three or four hours would do as well as seven or eight do now, that would still free up a lot of extra time, and be a pretty cool idea. But no sleep? No "reboot" of the brain? Sleep is when we encode long term memories, isn't it? No, thanks. I'd rather not make that drastic an alteration to the way my mind works. Who knows what awful side effects it might have, even if you could keep someone alive without sleeping.

See: Fatal Familial Insomnia

This ^.

All of nature is based on dormancy (renewal) and activity. I wouldn't aspire to mess with that.

That's why I said "with no ill effects" in my post. I just think it's a cool idea to think about, even if it isn't entirely feasible!

First of all, think about anything you want. I'm not the thought police and I wouldn't even want to be...

My point, which I guess I didn't make clear enough, was that sleep seems such a very basic need for every being with a complex brain I'm not sure "with no ill effects" is a goal that is, even theoretically, possible to achieve. At least not if you aim to eliminate sleep altogether.

However, I do see your point, otherwise. I wouldn't mind a fair amount of "extra" time. (Extra time is an oxymoron - I could always find something to fill that time.) And if you could figure out a way to improve the quality of sleep in such a way that less sleeping time was necessary to feel rested and refreshed, I'd gladly write the Nobel Prize committee to nominate you for one.* I doubt I'd be the only one, either. But - and, again, I'm not objecting to whatever you choose to think about - personally, I'll limit my speculations and thoughts to a reduced need for sleep rather than its total elimination.

* ETA: In fact, I'd say you'd deserve a Nobel Prize in every category - because by reducing the need for sleep, you'd have made it possible for everyone in every one of those fields to accomplish a lot more...

Sleep in the past during caveman times could potentially be dangerous with all those predators that were around. There must be some good reason as to why we sleep.

Even if it were possible to give up sleep without negative effects, I wouldn't want to. To give up sleeping is to give up dreaming. That's an alternative state of mind that I wouldn't want to miss out on. I would feel differently if I were tormented by nightmares but I'm not. My dreams are fascinating and enjoyable and not something that I am able to think up consciously.

Getting that animals are vulnerable while sleeping, there must be good reasons why evolution created and kept sleeping that make up for the vulnerability.

hmm im not saying it is a cure for sleep, note cure is a bad term - is sleep a disease?
but i recall during my drug using period inquiring about GBH, anyway alot of the reports on the drug were wrote by bodybuilders who were using it so they could have a deeper more refreshing sleep, consequently using less time, so they could work out then go to work, i noted that people's average sleep time was 5 hours, note this is a drug, it won't be healthy in the long run, or short.

It's called modifinil.

Yoo Hoo! Sleep is not a disease. It doesn't need to be cured.

ruveyn

I sometimes get REALLY annoyed that I am tired and have to stop what I am doing to sleep. I am frequently up late at night, and often wish that days would go for 30 hours instead of 24.
But I wouldn't want to lose sleep. I have had dreams that have profoundly changed my life, and my beliefs.
And there is nothing like curling up in bed with someone, especially when you are not planning to kill them!

First of all. You need sleep. Your body need to shut down so it can perform maintenance and repairs. You wouldn't try to perform maintenance and repairs on your car while its going 50mph down the road nor would you repair a jet engine while the plane is 40,000 feet in the air. Would you? your body is NO EXCEPTION!!

Wait, what?

Errr, I didn't mean that I often curl up in bed with various people and then kill them, but sometimes prefer not to.
I meant my husband is a maniac I sometimes get homicidal thoughts about. But I probably won't do it. Pretty sure. At least not today.