I personally would as long as there wasn't exhaustive consequences. As of right now, when it gets late, I can't think, I can't pay attention, and at a point, I can't see. I have the same response when I just wake up. I feel like there would be a lot more productivity in my life, and though things like organizing my meals and the like might become more complicated, overall I think my life would be improved. And hey, even if we were to as a species remove sleep as a utility, that doesn't necessarily mean we can't relax with our eyes closed at our own leisure, right?
I wouldn't want that option. When you sleep, you can get away from whatever is troubling you even if it's only for a short while. When you wake up, you can have a fresh start of sorts. Imagine being up and constantly thinking about a big mistake you made at work? If you're up all night, then that mistake will most certainly be in your head but with some sleep, at least it will go away for a bit. Sure, it will still be with you when you wake up but at least you didn't think about it for twenty hours straight.
I have purely obsessional obsessive compulsive disorder. Things are troubling me constantly, and sleep does provide relief. Even so, I'd still rather stay awake 24/7. I'm constantly down on myself, what I can accomplish, what I have accomplished, etc. There'd be so much more time to improve myself if I didn't need sleep. If I want relief, I can always drink :) EDIT: Of course, knowing me I'd probably spend the extra time playing video games and wondering why I'm not reading my library books...
Nah, I really enjoy sleep. I only sleep like 6 hours a night anyway, so it wouldn't be a huge net positive for my time anyway. Sleep is relaxing, comfortable, and kind of our one and only human "reset button" that I really enjoy.
Yes. Yes. Yes. I just woke up from a 3 hour nap. That's 3 hours of lost work. Ugh. Fml.
I actually have a heavy form of insomnia, I basically do not sleep at all, it doesn't matter what I do physically or emotionally or even if I take pills, I basically stay awake and my brain keeps thinking by itself (especially in the night when i'm very tired it keeps thinking and sometimes it even starts creating melodies)when I'm super tired i might get get about 1/2-1 hour of sleep every week. But yeah, I'm not really having the best life really because I'm tired half of the day and get huge headaches.
I have insomnia, but you sound like you have it much worse. I bought one of these fitbit things and it tells me that I get an average of ~4 hours' sleep a night, and will often be restless 10 or 20 times in that period.
I used to be like that when I was a little kid, but it got worse and worse,
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.
I don't need to sleep but I do need to dream. Seriously, you'd go insane.
I have to say no. I'm sure I would fill alot of that extra time with bad habits. I do not need an excuse to eat another 3 meals per day. The boredom would surely drive me back into addiction. As a single person with no family, I struggle with what to do with my free time as it is. I think the biggest thing about sleep is getting a fresh perspective on things upon waking and knowing no matter how tough today was that tomorrow things may be better. It's not always the case, but if I didn't have that I would probably fall into deep depression.
Well, that depends. If I was just gifted with the ability to not need to sleep to maintain my mind, that'd be pretty cool. However, there are other factors. A lot of your muscle repair/rebuilding happens during sleep (because, well, for one, you're immobile for 6-8 hours), so even if I was mentally able to go without rest, physically I'd probably still have to be in a reclining position for a similar amount of time if I wanted to function pretty normally. If we as a species did away with sleep, I can only imagine some unpleasant consequences. If everyone CAN work all day/all night, then this increases the drive for everyone to do so. In much the same way things like adderall encourage students to go without rest, this would be even worse. "I can't rest, I have to study." In cultures where workers already put in insane hours, this might make that trend even worse.
I've read before that sleep may serve a valuable function for your brain, that it actually benefits from down time to process new information, etc. So, it may be the case that the extra time could come with a trade off of a lesser functioning brain. Perhaps, as you hinted at, a relaxing non-sleep practice like mediation could offer some similar benefits (though it seems a bit different, and then you are still having to spend that time at rest). Sleep has a pretty substantial role in our culture, it's a bonding activity both intimately (say with a lover) or socially (such as having a sleepover with friends growing up). Of course, we would develop new rituals no doubt. It also forces us to physically rest, and break up our work schedules, which some people may need a forcing function to do that (given how many unused vacation days there are in the U.S. on average, for example, some people may need to have a forced resting time). Physically, my suspicion (though not at all vetted) is that sleep hours probably decrease your longevity less than waking hours (all other things being equal with an otherwise healthy lifestyle), so I wonder if you'd really get more time, or just die much younger on average?