Absurd Intellectual

I like to sleep. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, just so I can go back to sleep. There’s something about drifting off into a restful slumber that must hearken back to infancy, as it seems to embody a sense of safety and comfort and perhaps even innocence.

Currently, I’m spending a lot of time thinking about sleep as I am deprived of it. Due to bejiggered holiday travel (did you know that, apparently, FAA regulations state that planes cannot fly if the plumbing for all toilets isn’t working?) I am currently sitting at well over 30 hours without sleep (and not scheduled to get any for at least another eight).

Mmmmm, sleep.

In recognition of my sleeplessness, here are some facts about sleep from the National Sleep Research Project (the full list of facts can be found here):

• It’s impossible to tell if someone is really awake without close medical supervision. People can take cat naps with their eyes open without even being aware of it.
• Scientists have not been able to explain a 1998 study showing a bright light shone on the backs of human knees can reset the brain’s sleep-wake clock.
• British Ministry of Defence researchers have been able to reset soldiers’ body clocks so they can go without sleep for up to 36 hrs. Tiny optical fibres embedded in special spectacles project a ring of bright white light (with a spectrum identical to a sunrise) around the edge of soldiers’ retinas, fooling them into thinking they have just woken up. The system was first used on US pilots during the bombing of Kosovo. (This one kind of freaks me out a little. -k-)
• After five nights of partial sleep deprivation, three drinks will have the same effect on your body as six would when you’ve slept enough.
• Most of what we know about sleep we’ve learned in the past 25 years.