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23 Mar 2007 11:25 am

Sleep Deprivation

The cut-ups on many conservative blogs mock the idea that depriving people of sleep indefinitely is anything close to torture. Stalin disagreed. But one blog decided to find out what happens to the brain when deprived of sleep. Here's part of the journal. This is the post after 126 hours without sleep:

i am certiain i am hearing audioty hallcunations - i hear a cat mewo despite thatfact thast i own no cats. i also hear a weird series of bleeps in different tones - i cannot find the sourceo f them. i snap in and out of an almost trancelike state wher i look at a random object an space out. ifeel delirious, a frien came over to check on me asi told him to, and he thought it was funny that my statements were halfbaked nonsensical jibberish. i no longer simply walk - it is more of a staggerlike lurchin g. my balance is also off. out of the corner of my eyes i believe im seeing visual disturbances an interruptions. no hallucinations - i imagin thos come muhc later - just ripples an slight distortions in my periphial. it may not even be a true hallucination, just delerium.

That's after five days. Now imagine this continuing for the better part of a month - in solitary confinement, and often in shackles and stress positions, as the Bush administration has done to prisoners at Gitmo. And think of the quality of intelligence we're getting at the end of it. The point of torture is now and always has been only torture. The full log is here.

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