Is sleep really necessary?
So I’ve been getting an insanely small amount of sleep lately because Two Gents is in production week (I won’t even discuss how I didn’t get any sleep last week either even though we weren’t in production week- we were just rehearsing late). This has made me extremely grumpy in the morning, and I think that I am turning into Jack and will start having an alter-ego I talk to. Which would actually be cool, but kind of annoying, but anyway, after I get my two cups of coffee, I’m able to function. I mean, somedays I’m more tired than others, but generally I can keep my head up, drive to work, get my job done, and drive home. I usually nap for about 15-20 minutes when I get home, go to rehearsal, go to bed late and then get up the next morning and do it all over again. My point? I’m still alive. I mean, I don’t really have to drag myself through the day. At least not anymore than usual. I get this tired sometimes on weekends when I’ve had 9 hours of sleep. So maybe I don’t need sleep! I used to get 8 and this was really good, but there’s no way I can get 8 now. So is 7 or 7 and a half really better than the 5 and half to six I’ve been getting this week? I ponder this because my father is a life-long insomniac. He averaged 4 hours of sleep a night for 40 years. HIs hypothesis? We don’t need as much sleep as the average bear! (I’m also an insomniac.) Food for thought, I could be doing more and sleeping less. Hmm…
Comments
Tarv
2003-06-25T17:36:10.000Z
Well, probably. I can go a long damn time without sleep given the proper motivation and some decent coffee. It can even be kind of fun depending on what you’re doing. Slapdash was a good example (43 hours straight). We were doing something fun and creative and exciting, so staying awake, while difficult at certain points during the day, was fun. An example when it was NOT so fun was the last week leading up to opening night for Romulus. We were at the theater some nights until 2 or 3 am all week long, and I got up every morning to go to work like a good little ant. That was one of the worst weeks ever because it went past that point where sleep deprivation makes you just a bit loopy and threatens to cause serious damage. I was hating the whole world by the time opening night came along.
