The Scariest Ideas in Science

The 22-Hour Workday

According to the National Sleep Foundation, 71 percent of Americans get eight hours of sleep or fewer on weeknights, and the percentage is rising. â€We´re an increasingly sleep-deprived society,†says circadian-rhythm scientist Russell Foster of the University of Oxford. But a
new crop of â€wakefulness-
promoting†drugs can improve alertness-with no real side effects. Last summer Darpa, the U.S. Department of Defense´s advanced-research arm, tested the drug CX717 by exposing subjects to battle conditions for four consecutive 20-hour days. Sleeping only four daylight hours, they remained amped and alert. Meanwhile, prescription modafinil can keep civilians fresh for 48 hours. Its successor, armodafinil, poised for FDA approval, lasts even longer.

WHY, GOD? WHY?
Pennsylvania-based drugmaker Cephalon developed modafinil and armodafinil to treat narcolepsy, sleep apnea and shift-work sleep disorder. But fighting drowsiness has world-changing potential. The electric lightbulb allowed workers to remain productive after dark. Drugs that allow us to toil into even wee-er hours is the next leap forward.

FEAR FACTOR The pills make us more productive. But is that a good thing? Will they cast us into true work-all-day/party-all-night zombiehood? â€Modafinil is just the beginning,†says Pennsylvania State University sleep researcher David Dinges, who has tested it extensively. Foster agrees. â€We may be the first species that will genuinely occupy the 24-hour day,†he says. â€But we know very little about the consequences of subduing sleep.†(Rats, it should be mentioned, die after 17 days without shut-eye.)

The drugs appear to act on one or two neurotransmitters. They´re not replicating real rest, though. It takes the combined efforts of four or five neurotransmitters to keep humans awake naturally. â€The drugs can be effective for quite a while,†Dinges says, â€but a chemical substitute for sleep they´re not.â€

The Rating: