Long days - Long nights

[Guest]

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Here's a question I'd really like some input on: Can humans and/or
animals adopt to a 60 hour cycle? I'm been working on developing a
world for Traveller and have been toying with the idea of a 60 hour
day.

Do you think society and the human sleep schedule would adapt to it, or
would they break it up into three parts with a sleep cycle in each
(Dawn Day, Dusk Day, and Night Day)? Could a person (or animal) get
accostomed to sleeping 20-30 hours, or would that leave them too
starved to function?

 

[Guest]

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Hi David, always glad to see you posting.

Long term do you think it is possible? Wouldn't a people be prone to
drift in that direction, to the limits of their biology (not one of my
strong subjects). I remember a study done on college students who were
isolated in a controlled environment - no sunlight, no clocks - and
they found that humans quite quickly adopted a 36 "day" outside of
environmental influences.

I was looking to move this to a multiple of 16 awake, 8 asleep so as to
make it a zero point special effect for colonists.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

I hadn't really planned on genetic engineering - my colony population
is based on Vilani fleeing the Interstellar Wars (Traveller Universe)
and thus weren't entirely prepared - refugees more than colonists. I'm
curious as to peoples thoughts on how a continuous 60 hour day would
affect people. I'm partly inspired by an article in an old gaming
magazine about a generic sci fi world (Yhgina or something) that was
tidally locked. The people who became low tech nomads on the sun side
lost the concept of time. I don't want to go that extreme, but I'm
looking for a balance between realistic and exotic.

 

[Guest]

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mathilda wrote:
> Hi David, always glad to see you posting.
>
> Long term do you think it is possible? Wouldn't a people be prone to
> drift in that direction, to the limits of their biology (not one of my
> strong subjects). I remember a study done on college students who were
> isolated in a controlled environment - no sunlight, no clocks - and
> they found that humans quite quickly adopted a 36 "day" outside of
> environmental influences.
>
> I was looking to move this to a multiple of 16 awake, 8 asleep so as to
> make it a zero point special effect for colonists.
>
I seem to recall a similiar study that was done which pointed to humans
prefering a 25 hour cycle. There is also a type of sleep/wake pattern in
which you sleep for 4.5 hours and the are awake for 4.5 hours and
repeat. If you want some better info look at how the Inuit handle the
day/night cycle they are faced with every year. Is genetic engineering
available to adapt the humans to the environment in question? If yes
then the humans could be modified in any number of ways to adapt to the
day/night cycle.
Ken

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

Are they really that different? They seem to have the greatest dearth
of information about them. Everything says to treat them just as
regular humans (maybe with longevity??). Has anyone seen a decent
write of them on the web or elsewhere?

 

[Guest]

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On 18 Mar 2005 12:22:24 -0800, "mathilda" <smart_aleck72@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Here's a question I'd really like some input on: Can humans and/or
>animals adopt to a 60 hour cycle?

Not well. While the length of the sleep cycle can be adjusted to a
certain extent, anyone who's pulled an all-nighter and slept the next
day can attest that it's quite grueling, not something that you could
do every week.

 

[Guest]

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On 18 Mar 2005 13:46:31 -0800, "mathilda" <smart_aleck72@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>Hi David, always glad to see you posting.
>
>Long term do you think it is possible?

That depends on how long a term. Given 10,000 years of primitive
technology, sure. Maybe even a thousand.

Wouldn't a people be prone to
>drift in that direction, to the limits of their biology (not one of my
>strong subjects). I remember a study done on college students who were
>isolated in a controlled environment - no sunlight, no clocks - and
>they found that humans quite quickly adopted a 36 "day" outside of
>environmental influences.

Yup. There is signficant range of variation. But 30 hours without
sleep goes a bit beyond what I think is the conceivable range for
unmodified humans. People can fairly easily go 18-20 hours without
sleep if they are young adults, at least. But past 26 hours, other
accomodations have to be made.

 

[Guest]

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"mathilda" <smart_aleck72@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1111177343.975855.97290@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Here's a question I'd really like some input on: Can humans and/or
> animals adopt to a 60 hour cycle? I'm been working on developing a
> world for Traveller and have been toying with the idea of a 60 hour
> day.
>
> Do you think society and the human sleep schedule would adapt to it, or
> would they break it up into three parts with a sleep cycle in each
> (Dawn Day, Dusk Day, and Night Day)? Could a person (or animal) get
> accostomed to sleeping 20-30 hours, or would that leave them too
> starved to function?
>
FWIW, the United States Navy uses an 18-hour day on nuclear submarines, and
the crews are at sea for three-months at a time.

 

[Guest]

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On 18 Mar 2005 15:25:55 -0800, "mathilda" <smart_aleck72@yahoo.com>
wrote:

>I hadn't really planned on genetic engineering - my colony population
>is based on Vilani fleeing the Interstellar Wars (Traveller Universe)
>and thus weren't entirely prepared - refugees more than colonists. I'm
>curious as to peoples thoughts on how a continuous 60 hour day would
>affect people.

Oh hey. Vilani are a totally different deal. Nothing I say about
humans applies to Vilani. They have had thousands of years to diverge
from the baseline.

 

[john]

Archived from groups: rec.games.frp.gurps (More info?)

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:43:09 GMT, "Sam Spade" <sam@spade.com> wrote:

>FWIW, the United States Navy uses an 18-hour day on nuclear submarines, and
>the crews are at sea for three-months at a time.
>

True, but a 6 on/12 off cycle is easier to take than a 60-hour day. On
the other hand, 6 on/6 off (if you're on a "port and starboard"
rotation) gets rough after a while.

 

[Guest]

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On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 23:43:09 GMT, "Sam Spade" <sam@spade.com> wrote:
>>FWIW, the United States Navy uses an 18-hour day on nuclear submarines, and
>>the crews are at sea for three-months at a time.

John wrote:
> True, but a 6 on/12 off cycle is easier to take than a 60-hour day. On
> the other hand, 6 on/6 off (if you're on a "port and starboard"
> rotation) gets rough after a while.

So does a 12-on 12-off schedule.

Also, working 2 jobs (8-5, 6-12) meant getting up at 7 and going to bed
at 2 most ocassions M-F and sleeping 'til about 1:00pm on Saturday!

Other schedules I've been on for significant periods of time:
3-Days (8hrs ea) 24hrs-off, 3-swings(8hrs ea) 24hrs -off, 3-mids (8hrs
ea) 72hrs-off; Is rough after 2 weeks.

4-Days (8hrs ea) 24hrs-off, 4-swings(8hrs ea) 48hrs -off, 4-mids (8hrs
ea) 96hrs-off; Not too bad over all.