Redditor Nullified-Alchemist wrote this amazing sci-fi short story about human sleep deprivation. TL;DR: Alien faces consequences for keeping a Human up for more than 48hrs. It was inspired by these three writing prompts:
The need for sleep is a rare trait among intelligent species. Because of this, members of other species often either don’t understand the importance of sleep, how it works, or they just forget about it altogether. This causes many issues and misunderstandings.
Sleep is terrifying to other lifeforms because to them, it’s virtually teetering on the edge of death.
Aliens see exactly what happens when you interrupt a human’s sleep.
Human Sleep Deprivation Story by: u/Nullified-Alchemist
(via: Pinterest)
For fuck’s sake. ALL animals sleep!! Why the fuck would aliens be different?! They’d be naturally evolved creatures too!! People need to use their brains before writing these idiotic things!!
Actually…
“The evidence that all animals have a state that meets the accepted definitions of sleep is quite poor. Indeed, fewer than 50 of the nearly 60 000 vertebrate species [23] have been tested for all of the criteria that define sleep. Of those, some do not meet the criteria for sleep at any time of their lives and others appear able to greatly reduce or go without sleep for long periods of time. Many marine mammals, terrestrial animals and birds that migrate for long distances and large herbivores and animals with exposed sleeping sites might not show the periods of greatly reduced awareness, or the rebound after deprivation that defines sleep, during certain periods of their lives. It remains questionable whether all species that do meet the behavioral definitions of sleep, sleep for the same reason.
It might well be more accurate to view sleep as a behavior whose presence, quality, intensity and functions vary between species and across the lifespan. Different animals have used sleep to maximize energy savings by reducing body and brain energy consumption, increasing survival by seeking out a safe sleeping site, releasing hormones and conducting a variety of recuperative processes. Some species appear to be able to accomplish these processes during the waking state. This view contrasts with the idea that sleep is a universal state with the same underlying vital function in all species 64, 65.”
https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.lib.purdue.edu/science/article/pii/S0166223608000623
It’s easy to say ‘all animals sleep’ while forgetting that the only animals we have the means to include in the comparison are earthlife. It’s entirely possible that a species which evolved on a tidally locked planet with no day/night cycle might evolve an approach to recuperation other than sleep, such as a capacity for photosynthesis. I doubt such traits would be a galactic standard, but the story is clearly addressing an edge case; it’s not claiming that MOST species don’t sleep, only that theirs does not.
Dolphins put half their brains to sleep whilst the other half isn’t.
I’m not sure such an aggressive comment is called for. I enjoyed the story. The question of ‘why would aliens be different?’ is the entire point of this genre and is fun to play with.
Are you familiar with the work of evolutionary biologist Jack Cohen, in designing plausible alien biologies for science fiction worldbuilding?
One of his principles is “parochials vs universals”. He feels that, if a characteristic evolved only once on Earth, that all terrestrial organisms which have that characteristic descend from a single common ancestor with that characteristic, it is unlikely that an alien species would display it. However, a characteristic which evolved multiple times independently would be reasonable for an alien species to have.
For instance, octopodes, humans, spiders, and scallops all have eyes, all working on different principles, evolved out of different structures. So it would be reasonable to assume that an alien species would have eyes. But all creatures which have their breathing and eating tubes cross in a way that means they can only do one at a time descended from the same tetrapod. So “seeing stuff” would be common among aliens, but humans would be unique in being able to choke on our food.
All organisms rest in some sense, even protozoa and plants. But actual sleep in the sense that we understand it, is clearly present in mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians, and maybe in fish; there is something similar among insects and many other arthropods.
Critically – the need for extended, hours-long periods of uninterrupted unconscious rest appears to only exist among large-brained tetrapods. Intelligent cephalopods like octopodes sleep a total of two hours a day, with the largest chunks of time being a half hour. So the idea that the human sleep pattern would be unrecognizable to an alien species is more likely than that they would have the same one.
Dolphins have evolved the ability to only use half their brain at a time. When one side is active, the other is resting. This allows them to be awake for 24 hours at a time.
Just say you didn’t like it or understand real biology enough and move on.
The fact that she had the option of just quitting and chose to die instead is the bigger problem here.
Why didn’t she tell them she would die without sleep if they didn’t know?
This is not some innocent negligence. You can’t work someone to death by accident.
You are assuming the “boss” would listen to or believe her. My career has been in HR & Payroll. I interned for a company back in the 80s where the owner never took vacations and didn’t understand why anyone else needed to take one. HR had to argue with him a lot, to get basic benefits for the employees. I don’t know if they are still in business but I bet if they are they have at least one union by now.
Dude, it literally says they enter a state akin to meditation. When you wrote this, did you use your brain? Or read it? I understand it’s rather rife with typos, but not THAT many.
Dude, are you OK? The comments you’ve made up there gives the impression that you may need some sleep. It’s just a humorous anecdote that you went totally nuclear on. Maybe take a nap. You will feel better. I Promise!