On 12/23/01 12:25 PM, "Patrick Wilken" <patrickw@klab.caltech.edu> wrote:
>> From: James Rogers
>> The basic operational subtlety from a military standpoint is that
>> amphetamines prevent sleep, whereas eugorics eliminate the need to sleep.
>
> Of course this is very unlikely to be true. Sleep, while perhaps
> irritating, is likely to play important functional role(s) (e.g., in
> the regulation of memory). Animals deprived of sleep eventually die
> from bacterial infections caused by immune suppression. There is also
> the more subtle issue of the effects regular administration of these
> sorts of drugs might have on the synchronization of circadian rhythms
> within the body. It would be an unfortunate to develop something akin
> to Seasonal Affective Disorder from being awake for long periods at a
> stretch.
The mechanism of the eugorics isn't really understood. However, I recall
reading some speculation in a doc on it that it was chemically resetting
some switches and fooling the CNS into thinking it had just woken up from a
proper sleep. Or something like that; it is beyond the scope of my
knowledge or expertise.
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Sat May 11 2002 - 17:44:32 MDT