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This is progress . . .
Oct. 21st, 2005 12:24 pmOverheard on NPR this morning: Before the invention of the electric light bulb the average American got 9 hours of sleep a night. Because of electric light we now sleep an average of 7½. . .
I guess the choice is still up to the individual - call it reparations, but I want 10 (to make up for lost time). I'm not lazy by nature, but mild persistent sleep deprivation keeps me somewhat listless and dull. I used to believe that if I spent less time sleeping I could spend more time learning things. I guess I used to believe all kinds of strange stuff. Where it was true that I could maintain a head full of babbledy-gook, without sleep I couldn't distill that down into any kind of useful information. But, it took me about two years living like this before I realized I was going insane. The fall-out from this (and, I'm sure, a few other things) expressed as ten years of depression. Ugh . . . I wouldn't wish a moment of that nonsense on anyone! I guess I'm still interested in all kinds of strange stuff but I don't bother anymore to get bogged down in belief. Belief renders the mind rigid.
But if one ever wanted to know what effect sleep has on the mind, one need only go without it for a while and would soon realize how quickly and completely everything falls apart.
I guess the choice is still up to the individual - call it reparations, but I want 10 (to make up for lost time). I'm not lazy by nature, but mild persistent sleep deprivation keeps me somewhat listless and dull. I used to believe that if I spent less time sleeping I could spend more time learning things. I guess I used to believe all kinds of strange stuff. Where it was true that I could maintain a head full of babbledy-gook, without sleep I couldn't distill that down into any kind of useful information. But, it took me about two years living like this before I realized I was going insane. The fall-out from this (and, I'm sure, a few other things) expressed as ten years of depression. Ugh . . . I wouldn't wish a moment of that nonsense on anyone! I guess I'm still interested in all kinds of strange stuff but I don't bother anymore to get bogged down in belief. Belief renders the mind rigid.
But if one ever wanted to know what effect sleep has on the mind, one need only go without it for a while and would soon realize how quickly and completely everything falls apart.
