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Sleep deprivation
- Thread starter RangerWickett
- Start date
Zhure
First Post
kreynolds said:
IRL, humans cannot die from lack of sleep. They can go temporarily insane, or take some sort of suicidal act, but just merely remaining awake won't kill them. When enough time has passed, the human will fall into an uninterruptible sleep.
Some "lower" lifeforms will just die from lack of sleep. It has to do with the complexity of the r-complex of the brain.
If you're interested in the subject, I recommend "Dragons of Eden" by the late Carl Sagan. In it he talks about an experiment with rats where they eventually just kicked over dead from lack of sleep.
Greg
The Souljourner
First Post
I would definitely impose Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma penalties for sleep deprivation. I mean, Strength and Dex? I don't think you're really any weaker physically, though less coordinated I can see. But the true problem is mental. You can rest physically without sleeping. From someone who used to pull all nighters regularly, and once got a total of 16 hours sleep in 5 days, I know for a fact that it's the mental faculties that are hardest hit. Want me to run around the block? Sure. Want me to figure out the square root of 169? Sorry.
I'd give a -2 penalty to Int, Wis, and Cha for each 4 hours of lost sleep. Every consecutive 4 hours of sleep beyond 4 negates a -2 penalty (so 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep or two consecutive nights of 8 hours each would make up for 8 hours of lost sleep). If you drop to 0 in any of these three stats, you fall unconscious and cannot be woken until you've gained back enough to be positive. Even then, you won't wake of your own accord until you've reduced your penalty to at least -2.
-The Souljourner
I'd give a -2 penalty to Int, Wis, and Cha for each 4 hours of lost sleep. Every consecutive 4 hours of sleep beyond 4 negates a -2 penalty (so 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep or two consecutive nights of 8 hours each would make up for 8 hours of lost sleep). If you drop to 0 in any of these three stats, you fall unconscious and cannot be woken until you've gained back enough to be positive. Even then, you won't wake of your own accord until you've reduced your penalty to at least -2.
-The Souljourner
kreynolds
First Post
Zhure said:
In 3rd Edition Core Rules, you absolutely do die from lack of sleep, human or not, IIRC. Without sleep, you can't heal, so eventually, death will come knockin' on your door. Also, I don't think I was clear about my post regarding taking subdual damage. I was referring to forced marching or other similar strenuous activities. The way I see it, once you're exhausted, any activity is considered strenuous.
Edit: Hehe, I repeated myself in two paragraphs that were worded differently. Oops.
Last edited:
Oracular Vision
First Post
Yes, fatigue, then exhaustion. PC's hate fatigue so they rarely go past that (except for a barbarian, who could be fatigued from raging, then be exhausted from lack of sleep, then unconscious from even more lack of sleep).
On a personal note, I was stayed awake for five days in a row (I don't recommend it) to get a huge workload of school and other things done, which I did, but the secret I learned was that you could stay awake pretty easy as long as you don't sit down. Sitting down after three days is almost impossible, you will start to fade out and fall asleep.
You also start to halucinate after about two days, little things like the walls moving out in the peripheral areas of your vision. Drinking lots of coke and coffee will help keep you on task. After five days, I crashed and fell asleep (I didn't make it home, I fell asleep on a table at work).
From other studies I read, sleep removes toxins from your system, and these are what cause the hallucinations if you don't sleep. The worst thing is the that REM sleep, where you are dreaming, is used by the brain to sort short-term memories (Things you did that day) into long-term memories (things you remember doing in the past). By giving people just a little shock whenever they went into REM sleep, they could not remember simple things from the previous day (they gave both them and the control group a list of things to memorize, then tested them the next day). So, I guess I don't really remember what happened those five days
On a personal note, I was stayed awake for five days in a row (I don't recommend it) to get a huge workload of school and other things done, which I did, but the secret I learned was that you could stay awake pretty easy as long as you don't sit down. Sitting down after three days is almost impossible, you will start to fade out and fall asleep.
You also start to halucinate after about two days, little things like the walls moving out in the peripheral areas of your vision. Drinking lots of coke and coffee will help keep you on task. After five days, I crashed and fell asleep (I didn't make it home, I fell asleep on a table at work).
From other studies I read, sleep removes toxins from your system, and these are what cause the hallucinations if you don't sleep. The worst thing is the that REM sleep, where you are dreaming, is used by the brain to sort short-term memories (Things you did that day) into long-term memories (things you remember doing in the past). By giving people just a little shock whenever they went into REM sleep, they could not remember simple things from the previous day (they gave both them and the control group a list of things to memorize, then tested them the next day). So, I guess I don't really remember what happened those five days
