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pseydtonne  ·  3234 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: If you could never sleep again, would you stay awake for the rest of your life?

The answer is 'yes' only because of the constraints of the premise. If you could never sleep again -- meaning you cannot sleep, try as you might -- then you would stay awake for the rest of your life.

That life would not be very long. Your brain needs sleep or it cannot clear itself for more input. You'd go insane. Even if you stayed alive, you wouldn't be able to stay in civilization for long. Soon enough you'd only hallucinate and wind up dead from a failed interaction with a dangerous object.

If instead you are asking whether I would stay awake forever, even if somehow I no longer needed to sleep, then the answer is no. Sleep is better than money. Once you have a baby, you will pay people a tolerable wage just to get four hours of uninterrupted sleep. (It's $15/hr, it's called babysitting, and it's oddly risky for the parent.)

When I sleep, I can shut it all off. There is no need to answer anyone. I would love to get away with less sleep: I'm often useless without at least 7 hours, and emotional as heck on only 6. However I cannot imagine living without closed-eye rest.