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Re:Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system by derefr on Monday January 30, 2017 @03:59PM (#13524939)
"Sleep in a pill", to me, would be something that gives you the effects of having slept without sleeping, not something that makes you sleep.
Re:Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system by deleted_soon on Monday January 30, 2017 @04:52PM (#13525383)
That might be modafinil, but again it comes with side effects and probably doesn't address the core issue
Re:Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system by derefr on Monday January 30, 2017 @05:20PM (#13525607)
Maybe I'm still not being clear. I don't think people mean "the effects of having slept" in a symptomatic sense, either (alertness, etc.)

Rather, what people want is "the effects of having slept" in a physiological sense: a pill that rapidly sweeps the same toxins out of your body that sleep does gradually. Taking such a pill would have all the same long-term benefits that a healthy sleep schedule would have.

Of course, a "pill" that did this properly would likely have to contain something like complex organic-waste-molecule-chellating molecules, or perhaps even biofilm-scrubbing nanomachines. :)

Re:Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system by pizza on Monday January 30, 2017 @07:02PM (#13526220)
A negentropy pill; the holy grail, the philosopher's stone
Re:Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system by nine_k on Monday January 30, 2017 @09:22PM (#13526978)
DARPA used to work on something like that for the US Army.

IDK about any results yet.

Re:Chronic sleep deprivation suppresses immune system by oxide on Monday January 30, 2017 @05:22PM (#13525620)
you still get psychosis after not sleeping for a few days, just like with amphetamine IIRC.

the brain needs sleep, we aren't sure why, but stimulant psychosis does a pretty good job of proving that you start to break down after depriving yourself of sleep. paranoia, hallucinations, etc are all very common with this kind of stimulant abuse where you're keeping your body awake for days at a time.

generally speaking, if you use stimulants (or "wakefulness promoting agents" like modafinil) regularly you should be dosing first thing in the morning after feeding yourself, not re-dosing, eating what you can when you can and sleeping each night as much as possible.