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Exhaustion / Research
Aug. 19th, 2008 11:00 pmIt occurs to me that if you're going to put a character through severe sleep deprivation it helps if you yourself happen to have spent time so sleep deprived that you hallucinated / started to dream while awake.
During my late teens / early twenties I had month long stretches where I typically slept for less than 2-3 hours a night. It was a weird depression thing.
The best moment was when I was 16, a senior in high school, and sitting with my boyfriend on the couch.
He'd just given me a fantastic box with one of those huge red ribbons around it, the kind you only see in movies. (This should have been a clue.)
"Thanks for the present," I said.
"What present?" he said.
"This big box sitting in my lap," I said.
"I didn't give you any present," he said.
*poof* went my present.
So I am pretty confident when I declare that after six days of almost no sleep, my poor character is a) not tracking objects clearly, b) unable to remember major tasks with confidence, especially after interruptions, even ones that are major emotional goals for her (such as rescuing best friend), c) experiencing intermittent buzzing and locking in her joints, along with occasional muscle spasms and cramping, d) experiencing blurring of vision, artifacts in vision, and potentially hallucinations.
Also, decision making is impaired (imagine a drunk person) and to a certain extent the filters that most people put on action and speech are compromised (again, like a drunk person).
I always wonder how the characters in some novels stay up for days on end and stay focused, unless they're got special magic powers or are taking truly inspiring quantities of drugs.
Caffeine and nicotine will help to a certain point, but to do the stuff most characters do, either magic or major drugs are required. (I think. I accept that there are potentially people out there with MAJOR biofeedback abilities who do this stuff naturally. That's close enough to magic for government work, says I.)
During my late teens / early twenties I had month long stretches where I typically slept for less than 2-3 hours a night. It was a weird depression thing.
The best moment was when I was 16, a senior in high school, and sitting with my boyfriend on the couch.
He'd just given me a fantastic box with one of those huge red ribbons around it, the kind you only see in movies. (This should have been a clue.)
"Thanks for the present," I said.
"What present?" he said.
"This big box sitting in my lap," I said.
"I didn't give you any present," he said.
*poof* went my present.
So I am pretty confident when I declare that after six days of almost no sleep, my poor character is a) not tracking objects clearly, b) unable to remember major tasks with confidence, especially after interruptions, even ones that are major emotional goals for her (such as rescuing best friend), c) experiencing intermittent buzzing and locking in her joints, along with occasional muscle spasms and cramping, d) experiencing blurring of vision, artifacts in vision, and potentially hallucinations.
Also, decision making is impaired (imagine a drunk person) and to a certain extent the filters that most people put on action and speech are compromised (again, like a drunk person).
I always wonder how the characters in some novels stay up for days on end and stay focused, unless they're got special magic powers or are taking truly inspiring quantities of drugs.
Caffeine and nicotine will help to a certain point, but to do the stuff most characters do, either magic or major drugs are required. (I think. I accept that there are potentially people out there with MAJOR biofeedback abilities who do this stuff naturally. That's close enough to magic for government work, says I.)
