JJFBbennett

  The Sarcophagus I found myself resting in a cryo unit that resembled a sleek, high-tech sarcophagus . The outer shell is made of brushed metal and glass, while inside, glowing, self-weaving nanotech fibres are tightly wrapping around my body. All I could think of were ancient Egyptian linen bandages . My face is partially obscured, but I can feel the signs of distress etched across. The lighting around me is dim, bathed in cold blue and amber instrument lights. How did I get into it, and why am I seeing myself in the revival cocoon ? A Constrained Pilot The walls are pressing in, suffocatingly close. The air feels thin, hot, and heavy with the scent of my own fear. Sweat stings my eyes, blurring my vision and slicking my skin inside the flight suit , which suddenly feels like a lead weight. I can see the control panel , it’s right there. It’s a blur of familiar lights, red and green warnings pulsing in the semi-darkness, just inches away. My fingers twitch, aching to reach out,...

It seems that all you really need to survive and feel rested is the REM phase, which is only a tiny portion of your actual sleep phases at night. You only spend 1-2 hours in REM sleep during any given night, and the rest is wasted on the other seemingly useless phases. The way to hack yourself into entering REM sleep without being exhausted is to trick your body into thinking you’re going to get a tiny amount of sleep. You can train it to enter REM for short periods of time throughout the day in 20-minute naps rather than in one lump at night. Remarkably, adding just one nap during the day shaves an hour and forty minutes off your total sleep requirement. Powernapping Scientific experiments and anecdotal evidence suggest that an average power-nap duration of around 1 - 2 hours is most effective.Mitsuo Hayashi, Ph.D. and Tadao Hori, Ph.D.have demonstrated that a nap improves mental performance even after a full night sleep. REM sleep, this particular sleep state is highly conducive to f...