[UA] [OT] Sleep Deprivation

[Mark Fender]

> hmm, sleep deprivation. is it true you start to hallucinate if you don't 
get
> enough sleep? that's the sort of question i can comfortably expect 
someone
> on this list to know. you're all like a font of knowledge, provided the
> topic is slightly weird.

I went to DragonCon a few years back in Atlanta, Georgia. I lived in 
Springfield, Missouri at the time. The Greyhound bus trip took 24 hours, 
none of which I could sleep during (I hate buses), before reaching a 
friend's house. We then stayed up talking until around 2:00 in the morning, 
when we all piled in the car and drove the rest of way. It was about this 
time that the Mountain Dew and coffee became _real powerful_. The rest of 
the trip was spent with me chortling to myself in the back seat to private 
jokes as everyone else tried to see what would set me off. We arrived in 
Atlanta bright and early the next morning with a full day of Con activities 
ahead of us. By the time I crawled into bed much later that night, I had 
been awake for 98 hours. There was terrible pressure to 'go for the record' 
and stay up an additional 2 hours, but no one else would volunteer to stay 
up and keep me company.

The effects of this lack of sleep were subtle. Jokes became funnier, a 
_lot_ funnier. Stimulants became ultrapowerful and depressants were even 
more so. When walking, my feet would often sink into the floor about 3 
feet, making normal crowd parting a difficult task. Traveling up and down 
stairs, I felt like I was still walking up and down them for at least 8 
steps after I was off the staircase. But the sleep, the sleep was 
exquisite.

ObUA: Buses are ready-made for UA. On this same trip, I met up with some 
punks (blue mohawks, guitars, leather jackets, elaborate piercings, the 
works) who also happened to be wearing kilts (to match their hair 
nonetheless). I never had the nerve to ask them what the deal with the 
kilts was, but we spent many hours trading cigarettes (cloves, menthols, 
and regulars) and discussing punk music. Humanity is more 'human' on the 
bus. After forty-eight hours, the Isolation starts to hit you. You snatch 
sleep however and whenever you can. Everyone who can afford it, flies. The 
only people on the bus are people with something to hide or people too poor 
to afford airline travel.

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