3 ms·
Diseases with similar causes such as CJD also involve hallucinations and dementia and don't involve lack of sleep, so I'm not 100% convinced that it's the lack
by kybernetikos 13y ago
Diseases with similar causes such as CJD also involve hallucinations and dementia and don't involve lack of sleep, so I'm not 100% convinced that it's the lack of sleep that is causing the death in these cases, although it's an interesting data point.
- alphydan 13y agoI agree. Fatal familial insomniac's death is brough about by neurodegeneration caused by prions. Another non-fatal illness which inhebits sleep for extensive periods is Morvan's syndrome [0] for which there has been EEG recordings showing no sleep for 4 months [1] and showing no imparement of memory or intellectual performance! [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morvan%27s_syndrome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morvan%27s_syndrome [1] http://sommeil.univ-lyon1.fr/articles/jouvet/la_recherche/privation.php http://sommeil.univ-lyon1.fr/articles/jouvet/la_recherche/pr... [in french]