The Science of (No) Sleep
Once again, those mysterious folks at DARPA appear top have stumbled on something interesting. According to this Wired article, DARPA researchers have been testing a nasal spray containing a naturally occurring brain hormone called orexin A in order to study ways of fighting the negative side effects of sleep deprivation.
The study, published in the Dec. 26 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience, found orexin A not only restored monkeys’ cognitive abilities but made their brains look “awake” in PET scans.
Siegel said that orexin A is unique in that it only had an impact on sleepy monkeys, not alert ones, and that it is “specific in reversing the effects of sleepiness” without other impacts on the brain.
I’ve been a DARPA fan, for a very long time, even when they were ARPA and running MK Ultra trials. That being said, this new spray has a lower potential for misuse than many others, as it tends not to work in people with a full range of sleep. I have to wonder, however what these “fewest side effects” actually Are, in relation to the rest of the drug.
Because I would like to think that a doc taking orexin A isn’t going to be on a major come down in the middle of administering my regiment, or cutting open my spleen… Sure things like that can be worked around, but still.
I want to know which negative effects they’re talking about – the 6-beer stagger after 48 hours awake? The hallucinations after 72? The psychosis after weeks of minimal sleep and continued sleep deprivation? Or just alertness. Because as an unbadged representative the permenantly (voluntarily or otherwise) sleepfucked of the world, it’s going to take more than “not sleepy” to really be a breakthrough.
Of course maybe those aren’t ranked among the “negative” effects by DARPA..
“Sleep. Little slices of death. Oh, how I loathe them.”
– Edgar Allen Poe
If it works without any bad side effects, I’d totally use it.
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead” is my personal sentiment.
Of course, I also fight chronic insomnia, so I’m certainly for eliminating the negative side-effects.
you r the ones who r the ball lickers.