Amended:
"Sleep deprivation is sometimes used as a method of torture, but in recent years it has been shown to be an effective treatment of depression and other mental illnesses."
To:
"Sleep deprivation is sometimes used as a method of torture."
Since sleep deprivation has all sorts of known unpleasant side-effects, a claim to the contrary really needs to be supported. I find it very hard to believe that sleep deprivation would be a useful treatment for mental illness, and so, without further elaboration, I think the above claim is dangerous.
--Tremolo 07:41, 27 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Actually, sleep deprivation is sometimes used in depression, but it is not a viable long-term alternative. It does increase dopamine levels and reduce overall depression in the short term, though. A quick search on PubMed will turn up several articles.
sleep and wikipedians
anybody out here who cant sleep? I have been up all night on wiktionary adn its now0727local time. strange
- try reading Polyphasic sleep, it's very interesting, especially if you're an insomniac :D. I'm wating for a good time to start, read it too late, missed a chance during spring break.
Side effects may include
Lack of sleep may also result in irritability, blurred vision, slurred speech, memory lapses, overall confusion, hallucinations, nausea, psychosis, and eventually death.
It would be nice if the article specified how much lack of sleep one would need in order for these conditions to apply, and for how long one would need to lack sleep? I'm not much of an expert in it, but you probably aren't going to die if you get four hours of sleep one night, but it might make you pretty irritable the next day. 24.52.142.7 06:33, 19 Apr 2005 (UTC)