Could sleep be cured?
05-05-2012
The title of this article is somewhat disingenuous, sleep is hardly a disease. It is a natural part of life, like breathing. However, while many people look forward to bed at night, eagerly awaiting their blissful 8 hours of shuteye, there are others out there who see their time in bed as a waste, they see the third of their lives spent in bed asleep as time that they could have been doing something else. It is therefore unsurprising that people have been searching for a ‘cure’ for sleep.
While there are a number of methods of removing the need to sleep for short periods of time, these have all had serious consequences. Not sleeping seems to have consequences, no matter how humans have prolonged their wakeful period.
Probably the best known way of staying awake is through the use of amphetamines. The negative repercussions of this method are well known and no one would ever recommend this as a way of staying awake.
However, new drugs including modafinil and adrafinil (which we not recommed personally) seem to remove the need for sleep with little to no side effects. Unlike amphetamines, there are no pleasant effects, they simply remove the need to sleep. While no one has set out to take these drugs indefinitely, trials show that they are able to remove the need to sleep without side effects for long periods of time. Sleep may be cured.
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