Cost of Less Sleep vs Doesn't Sleep

[Tuoni]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Cetacians aren't "sleeping" the way we think of it, but they're "stupid" and have very simple behaviors when they do that. They're functioning at an IQ penalty, a perception penalty, and generally sluggish. They have to "wake up" when they're faced with a threat; otherwise a "sleeping" cetacian is mostly just hanging around and surfacing for air.

They may also have Less Sleep, but they've got a very limited version of Doesn't Sleep (Takes Stat Penalties Instead Of Sleeping).

I mean really - they do usually use both halves of their brain. They NOTICE when half of it is offline :)

Okay, bad example. Can't think of anything else non-magic that would make sense. . . But I'd still want it on my Were-Whale. :)

[ULFGARD]

Originally Posted by Bruno

"Quite nicely" is very much a relative term. A manic-depressive in a manic phase will cheerfully go with 2-3 hrs of sleep, but you can't really say they're in a "normal" state of mind while they're doing it.

But there's certainly nothing wrong with the price, and pushing sleep requirements down to one hour for nonhumans, or "no hours but still vulnerable to sleep effects" for enhanced/modified humans seems reasonable. I wouldn't give nonhumans who have never needed sleep "Less Sleep 8" - It would hurt my brain to figure out why they can be "put" to sleep but don't sleep on their own.

Well, the person I'm thinking of isn't manic, only requires a bit of sleep and he does quite fine, seems well adjusted, etc., so in his case, he clearly needs WAY less sleep than the rest of us do. Not sure what happens to him if he only gets 1/2 of his requisite sleep, though.

As for the Less Sleep 8 -- I can see it for races that don't actually need to sleep but perhaps enjoy doing so, or can do it in order to heal, recover fatigue more rapidly, or otherwise gain some benefit. But otherwise, I agree -- it would be odd.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Tuoni

Okay, bad example. Can't think of anything else non-magic that would make sense. . . But I'd still want it on my Were-Whale. :)

I would consider it a kind of regular sleep walking.
The few times I sleep walk, I am unusually coordinated and articulate. So much so that those talking with me don't know that I'm asleep. I even once apologized for falling asleep while asleep.

[Anthony]

On the original point, 'Immune to annoyance X' is rarely exactly twice as valuable as 'suffers half effect from annoyance X'.

[JCurwen3]

The thri-kreen from the Dark Sun setting never need to sleep. On the other hand, they're not immune to magical, psionic, or poison / drug based sleep as far as I recall, and it's suggested that ridiculously fatiguing themselves may put them in a condition where "rest", however short, is effectively sleep rather than rest in GURPS terms. Thri-kreen weren't my motivation for why I asked the question, but that's an example of a(n admittedly fictional, but still non-magical) creature that'd fit the bill.

[Flyndaran]

Unconsciousness is not sleep. They are quite different.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Unconsciousness is not sleep. They are quite different.

Very much so, both in real life and under the rules. We do not use these terms as synonyms . . . they're terms of art, and if we say one, we mean it, not the other.

[gilbertocarlos]

You also have the advantage that if you don't sleep, you could alone stay guarding a door all say, but if you sleep 1h, you still need a substitute for 1h.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by gilbertocarlos

You also have the advantage that if you don't sleep, you could alone stay guarding a door all say, but if you sleep 1h, you still need a substitute for 1h.

Immunity to boredom is a completely different advantage.
Also real animals are not able to push their sleep patterns around to fit their schedule as much as modern people think they can.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Also real animals are not able to push their sleep patterns around to fit their schedule as much as modern people think they can.

However the ability to do so would make a great perk or advantage.

There's one kind of river-dolphin that can't do the hemisphere-sleep trick, because the river it's native to is so fast-flowing that a semi-asleep dolphin gets swept away or spun into something. They snatch sleep in 4-50 second bursts (which blows my mind). That kind of "grab a few seconds of sleep where I can" sort of thing as a habit certainly makes you more flexible - but there's no staying awake for 16 hours straight either.