Five hours a night is no way to live.

You know those people - maybe you’re one of them. Our campus is full of folks who regularly get six or less hours of sleep per night.

Until recently I never knew how they did it. But an article about two sleep studies, one published here at Penn in 2003, helped shed some light.

Basically, when people consistently forgo hours of sleep every night, eventually they stop feeling tired. Sound familiar? The downside: they still display the concentration, reaction time, and memory impairments you would expect from sleepy people.

In short, you can zombify yourself, but it’s not good for you.

If that’s all true, it implies two things. First, Penn runs on people who, by virtue of zombification, are constantly performing below their capabilities and don’t feel it. Second, were they to reform their ways, these same people would discover mental faculties they had forgotten they were missing — not to mention refreshment.

So, if this sounds like you, take heart. Instead of resisting your pillow as a sworn enemy, welcome its loving embrace. Discover a world of refreshment you thought you left behind in middle school.

This guy might miss you, but that’s a loss you can afford.

Tags: sleep, zombies

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 7:24 pm and is filed under Penn. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.