

Biz Stone On Rats, Sleep, and Startups - ttpva
http://www.bizstone.com/2011/08/on-rats-sleep-and-startups.html

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corin_
Mid-way through the pieces, I was expecting it to lead towards the theory
that, if parts of the brain can shut-down while we're still awake, we could
perhaps find a way to just have a small part of us resting at any one time,
and never actually need to put our entire body to sleep.

While that did seem like a bit of a long shot idea (and frankly I would have
been thinking "yeah, nice imagination" had that actually been his ending), I
was none-the-less disappointed to get to a conclusion of "you're less
effective when tired", something most of us worked out when we were infants
without needing any scientific studies.

~~~
eric-hu
There are some people who believe that--look up polyphasic sleep if you're
curious.

I've tried doing it for about a month, but I've found that there are more
pain-free ways of getting more out of a day.

~~~
corin_
That's not what I meant though, polyphasic is just altering when you sleep, it
isn't never sleeping.

My interesting (and entirely sci-fi) idea was that if brain cells shut down
when you're tired, we could live permanently tired - brain cells would take it
in turns to shut down and recover, so you'd never be quite as awake as if you
were sleeping each night, but you'd also never actually be asleep.

I can't find a source right now (haven't looked particularly hard though), but
I read an article a year or so back about some people who either never sleep,
or sleep very rarely (and by rarely I mean, awake for weeks on end) - I don't
recall. I also can't remember whether it was known to be genetic, or just
assumed to be genetic, but either way I'm pretty sure it wasn't a case of
"anyone could do this if they ..."

------
alnayyir
Refreshing, simple, to the point, and based on fact.

I am pleasantly surprised, like I just had an uncommonly good glass of iced
tea.

