I hate sleep.

I now have a smile on my face, because in the blog statistics, I had 5 views before I came on. That means that some people are actually reading it without me asking them to. (Or there is someone who views my blog 5 times in a row via proxy)

Now to the topic at hand, sleep sucks. It's a waste of time. For all the good things it does to your body, I feel like our species would be better if we were able live like deer, who only sleep 5 minutes a day.

I find it interesting that scientist still don't know exactly why we sleep, or why we have to sleep for as long as we do. [1][2]

But, sleep is something special. It's not a dormant state, where we would try to conserve energy. All animals have dormant states, even plants. But sleep, especially in us. Is *not* a dormant state. We actually use *more* energy sleeping then when we are ideally awake. And our brain is much more active. Which suggests it is doing something.

Of our best guesses are:

• Enforcing memory, our brain runs through the same things we remember doing that day over and over, so that the synapse is stronger, and we will be able to remember it longer.
• Regenerating cells and fighting infections.

The first is the reason scientist's (and teachers) say to get a good nights rest before an exam. And there has been studies that verify that sleep makes a difference in that respect. (But we are only guessing as to *why*)

The second is the reason that people tell you to get lots of  sleep when you are sick. Which also has evidence that it helps.

But the parts of sleep that we have no good guesses about are much larger, why we dream, why we need to sleep a certain amount of time to feel rested. etc.

On that last point, the cracked article below says a man claimed to have not slept for years, he is wrong. (In case your wondering, the record for longest time without sleep is 18 days) 

A little research says that it turns out it was a misunderstanding. Because he thought that getting below recommended sleep meant "no sleep". In reality, he got 2-3 hours of sleep a day. Which we already know is possible with Polyphasic Sleep.

I'm rather interested by the idea that I could be awake for 22 hours a day. Even 4 would be a great improvement. A few sources say that it does not necessarily increase your productivity, but it is really something I have to try for myself.

My current sleep schedule is a 6 hour Monophasic sleep cycle. I go to sleep at 1:30 AM, and then get up at 7:30 AM, I switched to this schedule from a 10-hour sleep day.

Here are a few noticeable differences compared to 10-hours:



• I feel more awake in the morning. (But still feel like sh*t)
• I feel more awake and focused during the day.
• I feel significantly more sleepy at night (starting around 12:30), and I feel that I would not be able to pull an all-nighter on this sleep schedule.
• It have to try slightly harder during my morning class to stay awake, but not that much, and I still find myself more focused.

I'm not sure what effects it will have in the far future. But so far it has been positive. Scientists say that 3% of people have certain gene that allows them to do fine on 6 hours. [3]Here's to hoping I have that gene. 

Citations:
1. http://www.cracked.com/article_19442_8-simple-questions-you-wont-believe-science-cant-answer.html
2. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/15.02/bigquestions.html?pg=3#sleep
3. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-08-13-sleep-gene_N.htm