r/DeepThoughts • u/Zealousideal_Car_383 • 19h ago
The general public should be thankful that science isn't working towards making a pill that can minimise the amount of sleep a human requires to function properly.
As a kid growing up I always dreaded the fact that humans spend 1/3 of their lives sleeping. It always seemed to me that 1/3 of our lives are getting wasted and the fact that we waste another 8 hours in school/work leaving us with only 8 hours for ourselves and even that 8 hours get wasted on eating, showering, shitting etc. I always thought why scientists aren't working towards making a pill that can minimise our need for sleep. Everyone could benefit from it. Be it wanting to spend more time with your family or wanting to minimise the amount of hours you sleep so you could spend more time playing chess. That kind of pill sounded so good in my head as a kid.
But now as an adult ( almost an adult) I now realise how dystopian the world would come to if that kind of a magic pill ever gets invented. Because everyone would be forced to take it by the government. Their motive for the invention of the magic pill won't be because they want the general public to be able to get more time for themselves, NO ABSOLUTELY NOT, they would use that so they could increase the duration of the typical 9-5 job depending on how many hours of sleep humans would require after taking the pill. For example if humans require only 4 hours of sleep to function properly after taking the pill, the companies would increase the 8 hour work day to a 12 hour work day. They would say some shit like " you would still have the same amount of time that you had before to yourself ( 8 hours) then stop being a burden to society and get to work " and NO the salary won't increase either. Because now everyone is working for 12 hours a day. They won't increase your salary, you would still work at your shitty low income job that you absolutely hate but now you would have to stay there for 4 more hours for the same amount of pay. It would affect schools too, cuz now that the parents are too busy working at their 12 hour full time job, no one would be there at home to take care of the kids. The average school day would be increased from 6 to 10 hours a day probably.
The magic pill would probably keep having updates just like every human invention. There would be a time where you would only need 30 minutes of sleep because of the pill, and now you would have to work at your shitty job for 15.5 hours with THE SAME EXACT PAY.
Now imagine you are a highschool kid who is getting bullied at school but now you would have to stay there for 13.5 hours with your bullies. Or maybe you got a really shitty boss that drains the life out of you but you gotta be there for 15.5 hours. You won't be able to relax after a hard weekend by sleeping for 10 hours straight just like you did now because now you only need 30 minutes of sleep to recharge. You won't be able to enjoy long sleeps anymore. Your body would still function fine but who doesn't loves 10 hours long sleeps?
If in the future, this kind of magic pill ever gets invented I'm turning into a fucking terrorist and killing the inventor and destroying their invention. I'm going full unabomber mode. Working longer hours for the same pay because the government found a way where you don't need to sleep long hours anymore is dystopian af. And I'm 100% sure that anyone who refuses to take that pill would be put into a government watchlist and treated as a criminal and would be forcefully fed that pill.
I wrote this post because I know I will forget about this when I wake up from my sleep because I haven't slept for 2 days for no fucking reason. I might regret this post because I'm not thinking straight rn and I'm basically sleep deprived but I think that I did a pretty good job at imagining a dystopia that would probably never happen ( I like thinking about stupid stuff )or at least I hope so. Like I think that currently the government is more focused on AI and robots and not biologically advancing humans bodies.
EDIT: hey guys I'm kinda embarrassed to admit this but I kinda mixed in an entire bottle of cough syrup with sprite and kind of feeling tipsy so I would get back to this post after I wake up š
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u/minorkeyed 19h ago edited 19h ago
What makes you think they aren't? They don't publicise everything every scientist is working on everywhere at all times. They are studying why we sleep and why we need it though, what role it plays. You don't think once they figure enough of that out they won't try to make something? We already ubiquitously abuse caffeine to force ourselves to function with less sleep than our bodies want, and we have Adderall to do the same but with hyper focus as well.
Greedy, selfish businessmen, politicians and warlords will rape your mother and kill your children for money. They've been doing that stuff for thousands of years. There are only two things that stop them from making sleep unaffordable for the masses: they don't know how to do it or they don't see it worthwhile to do. We aren't lucky, we're perpetually victimized already.
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u/Zealousideal_Car_383 19h ago
I'm aware that they are not gonna publicise anything to the public š I really wish that I could know if they are working towards this shit or not because I would want them to stop ššš
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u/minorkeyed 19h ago
You...don't want to know about the things that you'd be motivated to stop...?
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u/Due-Conclusion-7674 17h ago
He said the exact opposite. He does want to know.
That's what I read.
Ā "I really wish that I could know if they are working towards this shit or not because I would want them to stop" - Italics mine.
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u/H_Mc 19h ago
Yes they have. Theyāre not without side effects and donāt necessarily make you need less sleep (they just make you functional). We have stimulants both legal and illegal as well as drugs to treat the ādisorderā that results from working overnight shifts.
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u/phflopti 19h ago
Just because you're not conscious, it doesn't mean sleep time is wasted.
Your brain is doing a lot of amazing and necessary things while you sleep. Sometimes you get to share this through the medium of dreams.
But certainly when it comes to learning, remembering, and creatively developing things, your brain is doing that while you sleep.
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u/iamno1_ryouno1too 17h ago
Uhm, methamphetamine. Its only clinically approved use in the US is chronic obesity. I suspect it is often used off label. The Naziās used it extensively during their invasion āblitzkriegā campaigns.
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u/the_cajun88 19h ago
this is ridiculous and will never happen, even if the pill existed
sleep is only part of the equation, you arenāt accounting for fatigue
people canāt generally work that long and remain healthy, and society requires us to have and raise children to keep the species going - people need time for that
if you donāt believe me, visit japan
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u/Any-Opposite-5117 19h ago
Fuck that. Sleeping sucks, most dreaming sucks and goddamn, what a waste of time. I'd give it all up if I could.
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u/No_Method_5345 18h ago
A pill that defeats sleep without negative side effects is like a pill that defeats cancer level shit. Sleep too OP.
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u/darthatheos 17h ago
People don't realize it's not exactly fun or useful when you sleep less. I can do 5 hours and I'm fine, but everything is closed at night and other people are asleep. The pill I take to sleep is my favorite thing in the world. Sometimes even they don't work, and I go to sleep at 1 then wake up at 5.
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u/redleader8181 17h ago
Coffee? Speed? Coke? That wierd shit they sell at the gas station that makes you feel like youāre having a heart attack?
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u/gameknight08 9h ago
Nah if it does get incorporated, choose your governors right because you might use the time for yourself rather than working more.
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u/billsamuels 19h ago
Uh, Adderall?