Sleep Deprivation rules

[Quickleaf]

This is the first version for Sleep Deprivation rules I worked up. It answers the question: My character can't afford to sleep right now, and they're willing to suffer the consequences. But what are the consequences? These rules can be used to simulate sleepy guards, even adapted to a modified sleep spell. And if your PCs happen to be suffering from a night hag or similar dreamstalker, these rules come in very handy.
What do you think? Are they balanced? Realistic? Thanks in advance!

EDIT: Revised, see below.

 

[maddman75]

This is the first version for Sleep Deprivation rules I worked up. It answers the question: My character can't afford to sleep right now, and they're willing to suffer the consequences. But what are the consequences? These rules can be used to simulate sleepy guards, even adapted to a modified sleep spell. And if your PCs happen to be suffering from a night hag or similar dreamstalker, these rules come in very handy.
What do you think? Are they balanced? Realistic? Thanks in advance!

I think you're streching the times out a bit far. I mean I haven't researched it much, but I know I've hallucinated after 36 hours before, rather than a week. With any luck Piratecat will take a look for you. He's like, the sleep d00d.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I think you're streching the times out a bit far. I mean I haven't researched it much, but I know I've hallucinated after 36 hours before, rather than a week. With any luck Piratecat will take a look for you. He's like, the sleep d00d.

I tend to agree.

 

[CronoDekar]

This stuff is mainly as far as realism goes -- depending on how much you want you can use it or ignore it (in my games, I act as if a sleeping character is always dreaming even though that's not really true). Ah, here's my textbook. This will be kind of a "generalized" thing, not covering many specific aspects of your mechanics, but just describing how sleep deprivation is overall.

The Lucid Dreaming effect is going to be... well, not there. By that time, a person would probably have fallen asleep. One thing someone that's sleep deprived does experience though is microsleeps, or very brief periods where they fall asleep for a second or two. This, of course, results in lapses since they lose consciousness. Microsleep occurance is a lot earlier than nine days though. Even at this point, NREM sleep is going to take precedence over REM sleep (only the latter in which you dream). Hallucinating following sleep deprivation is actually relatively rare -- that's not to say it never happens, but few people experience it.

Sleep deprivation also effects executive tasks -- basically, anything you have to think about doing, though certain things can increase it so it's almost as good as normal (drugs, motivation, etc.), depending on the level of sleep deprivation. Someone can also exert extra effort to do almost as well as normal, but only over short periods of time. Tasks of "sheer physical exertion" are only minimally affected (though people may feel like they're doing worse). People that are sleep deprived tend to get easily distracted, but can't give much detail about what's distracting them. (To get psychological, they have difficulties in attending to stimuli.)

It can also cause you to not be able to control your emotions or inappropriate behaviors as well and make you more prone to instantly accepting an argument. (This is actually why infomercials are typically in the late evening -- someone's staying up that late is tired and quickly accepts what the TV's saying as true.) Your rate of error-making also increases. Recovery from sleep deprivation actually isn't hard, since the sleep you get after you're sleep deprived is typically better than normal (according to my book, it only takes 1-3 nights).

I'm really not sure of the "by day" effects, to be honest. I probably wouldn't make it Intelligence damage, as a person doesn't get more dumb, they just get more unaware (and I'd probably make it a wisdom penalty rather than damage instead). Also, I'd probably make it a fort save rather than a will save.

Chronic sleep deprivation can have long-term effects, but that's probably not something you want to get in to. IMO, this doesn't really warrant a specific set of mechanics, because there's so many elements that go into it that it'd be easier just to wing it.

EDIT: This isn't dealing with places! Also, made a small edit (hopefully nobody has noticed this yet). The ability to engage in montonous and dull behavior is also impaired during sleep deprivation.

 

[trentonjoe]

seems okay...personally I use the "exhausted" condition.

 

[RandomUsernamehmimo71]

seems okay...personally I use the "exhausted" condition.

Problem with Exhausted is that it tends to be more for physical exhaustion, rather than mental...

CronoDekar, your comment was very helpful, and I hope it leads to a better revision of the above system.. There really should be SOMETHING in play.


I've given myself very long days frequently, (I've had one 94 hour workday), and I can assure quickleaf, I had no hallucinations. What I did have is more of a hyperfocus... I would work on the server for what seemed to me like an hour, tuning out everyone at the office around me. What seemed short to me would end up being 4 or 5 hours to everyone else. They said I kept working, and never blacked out long enough for anyone to notice..
But it wasn't a "bad" effect... At one point my boss told me that he wanted me to get some sleep for my own health.. I went home, took a shower, ate some cold pizza, and went back to work to finish what I was doing.
Now, in retrospect, I might have done a better job if I /had/ slept more.. But that's the sort of thing that's impossible to test.
I felt like I was fine. Then again, that's what a lot of drunk people say.

But I certainly wasn't NEARLY as bad off as these descriptions would make it out to be...




The variant I use in my game is much shorter...

For every 24 hours that you stay awake beyond the first, you must make a will save to avoid taking 1d6 points of temporary wisdom damage.
The will save DC is determined by the amount of time that you have been awake. The DC is set by 15+ (2 * the number of days you have been awake)

I've gone back and forth on the will/fort save issue. I finally decided on will, because I think it's more an act of Mental clarity and fortitude, than physical fortitude.. But then again, I don't know much about the subject for real, I'm just guessing
I dislike a DC to avoid falling asleep.. It's actually pretty darn easy to stay awake, if you're doing something, and keep your mind busy. People fall asleep "On watch" because it's boring.
I just make the DC to avoid damage. Eventually, people will pass out, from getting 0 wisdom.


Colin "Sleep is overrated" Davis

 

[Quickleaf]

As with all rules, these are really guidelines intended to help a GM arbitrate quickly.

One thing I noticed about the comments is that Colin, you said you were more focused and better able to concentrate for long periods, while CronoDekar, you said people tend to be more easily distracted. From my own experience 72 hours sleepless, I think both have some truth in them, and it depends greatly on the individual. The way I look at it is this: Focusing is harder when one isn't focused intensely on a single task, but for short periods of time (up to several hours) when one focuses on one thing at the exclusion of anything else, they are actually more focused (though no more so than they would be caught up on sleep).

Here are the edits I'm going to make so far based on your advice (Thanks!)...

-make sleep deprivation catch up with character faster
-get rid of the "lucid dreaming" state
-remove the hallucinations, or at least make them much more rare
-microsleeps, Will save every few hours (progressively more frequent) or dazed 3d6 rounds, only occur during down-time, not in the midst of action
-potential of falling asleep during extended periods without action, like watch duty (something like on the third microsleep within X amount of time, and the character stays asleep)
-speed up recovery times (1-3 days)
-penalty to Wisdom-based skill checks and Will saves
-however, a character actively focusing on a task (able to take 10) can ignore the penalty to Wisdom-based skill checks for one skill at a time
-after a certain point, sleepless characters are subject to effects of emotion spell (?)
-some kind of long-term effects (?)

 

[RandomUsernamehmimo71]

I like those revisions. The idea of dealing with Microsleeps in particular is a good one, and the way you're tying it into watch duty is clever.
I also agree that I don't know how much of the Focusing was just a me thing, a just "I was so frustrated with the server" thing, or a general case thing. I don't stay up /that/ long often enough to notice. The latest I usually ever go is about 36-40 hours before I decide I'd think more clearly after sleeping.

Then again, is it just me, or is is harder to get up after 1 hour of sleep, than none? <smirk>

Anyway, Good luck, I look forward to seeing your rules!

(And I hope their OGL licensed, so I can use them in my game


Colin "Want's to see 'em" Davis

 

[Quickleaf]

Then again, is it just me, or is is harder to get up after 1 hour of sleep, than none? <smirk>
Anyway, Good luck, I look forward to seeing your rules!
(And I hope their OGL licensed, so I can use them in my game

Absolutely they're OGL! (I would never publish anything that wasn't! )

OK, here are the updated rules/guidelines, without any funny names. Thanks for looking at them and helping to make them better.

I haven't yet taken into account people going without sleep for more than 4 nights or long-term effects of sleep-deprivation. Basically, I don't know what happens then, thankfully.

 

[reanjr]

I have studied this topic in great depth. The main thing that seems to be missing is that you are not allowing for metabolic changes in a sleep deprivated individual. Most of the research data we have is from lab rats, but there is great supportive evidence in torture, especially among Korean POWs.

The primary effects of sleep deprivation (along with their onset time and severity) are as follows. Note, this is from memory, but for gaming purposes, this should be accurate enough.

Loss of awareness

This is the first to go, and begins after approx. 20 hours of wakefullness. This continues getting more severe up to about 48 hours. After that point, you've MOSTLY capped on loss of awareness. Possible gaming application? -2 to Spot and Listen for every four hours after 20 without sleep, max -10.

Loss of mental acuity

This ties in with a loss of focus. While under sleep deprivation, you can focus on simple or repetitive tasks quite well (sometimes better than normal), but complex tasks become very difficult or impossible to do. This tends to start happening around 30 hours of wakefullness, and increases slowly throughout the deprivation period. Possible gaming application? -5 penalty to all Concentration and Intelligence checks with a DC greater than 15 at 28 hours. For every 8 hours thereafter, the DC that the penalty is applied to is lowered by 1 (DC 15 at 36, DC 14 at 44).

Susceptibility to suggestion

After about 48 hours, your mental and emotional resolve begins to wear down. You are easily coerced, bamboozled, or confused by those who wish to do so. This slowly increases as you remain awake. Possible gaming application? -4 check for every night past the first to all Mind-Affecting spells, and Sense Motive checks.

Hallucination

After about 36 hours of wakefullness, you may begin having mild hallucinations. Personal experience tells me that aural hallucinations tend to begin before visual, but this might just be me. Possible gaming application? -1 ability damage to Wisdom for every 8 hours beyond 24. There's really not much of a better way to represent this in the D&D system, though games such as Call of Cthulu with an insanity score could use this instead.

Highly increased metabolism

This is the least understood aspect of sleep deprivation, but probably the most important. After about 48 hours, the metabolism increases to such a rapid pace that your body begins to burn off calories, including fat and then muscle at an alarming rate. From the little information we have, it seems that after about 2 weeks, no matter how much you have eaten, you literally starve to death. Possible gaming application? I don't know exactly what the starving rules are in D&D, but I'd say having the creature require twice as much food on the third day as normal, and then after a week getting to the point that it doesn't even matter would be a good simulation. Con damage would be appropriate, perhaps 1d4-3 every day during the first week (starting only after 48 hours) and then up to 1d4-1 for every day of the second week. This would give about the right life expectancy for the average person. Though, the POWs were probably in better health than the average person, so maybe 1d4 or 1d4+1 would be better.

A couple other things of note on recovering from sleep deprivation

Microsleeps are generally shown to be useless. You body will force you into them, but they are not restorative and should probably have no game effect. Maybe making a Will save to be awake when something happens (DC 15; not too difficult until you begin to suffer the above effects) could work. When you have a microsleep you do not generally realize it. If you were on watch for instance, and someone sneaks by, you must make a Will save DC 15 to even get the chance to make a Spot check. If you fail this, you do not notice the individual and do not even realize you were asleep to miss it.

Up to a certain point, naps are also generally not useful. You only begin to have restful sleep after about 1-2 hours of sleeping. This, coupled with a lowered mental state and metabolism, is why 0 hours of sleep are better than 1 hour. You should not allow players (this especially applies to Wizards) to get the effects of sleep by taking four 2 hour naps.

On the other hand, slightly longer cat naps (3-4 hours) actually net more restful sleep per hour down than a full night's rest. Research has shown this to be due to the restful state about 1.5 hours in that lasts to about 3.5 hours is approx. twice as restful as the second restful state from about 6 to 7.5 hours. So in a 3.5 hour "cat" nap, you get 2 hours of what I'll call double-sleep (or 4 hours of rest from 3.5 hours of sleep), while in 8 hours, you get 2 hours of double-sleep and 1.5 hours of single-sleep (5.5 hours of rest from 8 hours sleep, the approximate daily requirement; daily requirement is hard to determine, though, because humans are not physiologically designed for 24 hour days; we would work much better on 28 hour days). The corollary of this is that you can get as much sleep in two equally spaced 3 hour naps as you can in 8 hours of contiguous sleep. I have tested this theory thoroughly and can tell you from experience that this is indeed the case.

When you have sleep deprivation, you accrue a "Sleep Debt" (this metaphor is not mine). This debt does not get paid off as long as you continue to avoid getting a full day's worth of sleep. It continues to accrue. You can pay off this debt very quickly, though, once you get an excess of sleep. In studies of individuals awake for approx. 1 week, they only needed to sleep about 18 hours afterward to feel normal again. During that period, they would have accrued 5.5 (see above) times 7 hours of sleep debt, or 38.5 hours. Part of this is due to the fact that under sleep deprivation, you go into restful sleep quicker and for longer periods of time during your sleep. As a rule of thumb, you can require 2 hours of extra sleep per full day of deprivation to catch up. This is why people sleep in on the weekends. The average American sleeps about 6 hours (the absolutely worst time to wake up from as you were just entering restful sleep again) in one contiguous block, accruing 1.5 hours of sleep debt per day for 5 days (or 7.5 hours). This is made up for by sleeping 9-12 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

Much of this information was gleamed from Stanley Coren's Sleep Thieves and various websites. Anybody interested in the topic should check that book out as a wonderful starting place to learn about sleep from every angle, especially that of the increasing medical problem of Americans not getting enough sleep.