Question of the Week: Sleep Deprived

Would you give up half of what you now own for a pill that would permanently change you so that one hour of sleep each day would fully refresh you?

I actually have to think about this one. Not that I would mind giving up half of what I own. To be honest, it's nice having some of this stuff, but I'm sure that I could get by without it.

It's the sleep thing that's making it hard for me to choose. On the one hand, I do enjoy sleeping. There are days when it just feels so good to sleep. There are days when it feels so very good to go back to sleep after waking up too early.

On the other hand, there are a lot of times when I get the full eight hours of sleep and wake up feeling just as tired as I did the night before. It would be nice to have a guaranteed good night's sleep in only an hour's time. So yeah, I think I'd do it.

But then, the question remains, what would I do with all that extra time. If you ask most people what they'd do if there was one extra hour in the day, they say they'd sleep. But I've just taken care of the sleep I need. This gives me 23 hours of awake time. So how do I fill that other seven or eight hours in which I would otherwise be unconscious?

But that's not the question of the week, so I won't waste time speculating about that.

*Question of the Week comes from The Book of Questions by Gregory Stock, Ph.D.