Adapting to Different Sleep Schedules

[TGLS]

OK, so per Getting Up Early (B427), if you sleep for less than your sleep period, you subtract twice the hours missed from your awake period. If I'm reading it correctly, this isn't cumulative, thus a human can adapt to and 2:1 sleep cycle without much trouble. Is this a correct reading or is there something I'm missing? I kind of feel like there should be penalty, at least when starting out.

[Anthony]

Not sure what you mean by not being cumulative. It's not cumulative across multiple days (that's handled by the fatigue loss) but it's certainly cumulative for multiple hours in the same day.

[shadowjack]

Sorry, but GURPS is not an exhaustive reality simulator, it's a game for dramatic fiction -- albeit one grounded in a sense of realism or historicity. So it's not surprising that many real things aren't in the rules! :)

The Basic Set gives simple, basic rules for sleep which are sufficient for the average game. If you're doing a campaign where sleep deprivation and unusual sleep schedules are important, I think you'll have to invent some suitable rules. (And then share them here, if you like!)

I find it useful for questions like these to start by looking at the reality first, then devise rules within the GURPS framework if it seems necessary. Off the top of my head, I imagine that adapting to a new sleep schedule would be a HT roll, or possibly a roll on Autohypnosis, Body Control, or Dreaming skills. Fail the roll, you suck up some sort of fatigue penalty until your character adapts; critically fail, and your character is one of those people who just can't adapt to that schedule. Something like that.

[mburr0003]

I like adapting After the End's Long-Term Fatigue to handle things like this. Miss sleep and then still have FP missing from missed sleep when you fail to rest again? LFP loss instead of FP.

I'm not sure what you mean by "2:1" sleep cycle, but if you want to impliment Biphasic Sleep cycles, go ahead, just amend the rules from "needs 8 hours continuous" to "needs 8 hours of rest in a 24 hour period".

But even then, most people need 2+ hours in a rest cycle to feel rested, so multiple 1 hr rest period don;t really work... but I'd allow it with a Perk.


But then I also run high cinematic, not gritty realism.

[RyanW]

You could make a HT roll each day following a major sleep schedule shift to see if the character has adapted. A failure leaves them low on FP as if they had slept poorly, success means they slept okay but aren't yet adapted, success by 5+ means they've adapted. Each consecutive day they do not sleep outside of the new schedule gives +1 to the roll (take a nap to catch up and you lose your progress).

At least, that kind of matches my experience when trying to change my sleep schedule. You have some good days and bad, gradually becoming better, until suddenly it's your new sleep schedule.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by shadowjack

Off the top of my head, I imagine that adapting to a new sleep schedule would be a HT roll, or possibly a roll on Autohypnosis, Body Control, or Dreaming skills. Fail the roll, you suck up some sort of fatigue penalty until your character adapts; critically fail, and your character is one of those people who just can't adapt to that schedule. Something like that.

Will rolls are generally required to go to sleep, but a HT roll, or HT-based skill roll might be required to cope with jet-lag. Add a +1 cumulative bonus each day to HT as your circadian rhythms adapt. Failure means -1 FP due to lack of sleep, CF means Drowsiness.

Most sleep cycle problems should be handled as perks or quirks.

Quirk
Fixed Sleep Cycle - you have a -2 penalty to adapt to a new sleep schedule.

Perk
Flexible Sleep Cycle - You get a +3 bonus to adapt to a new sleep schedule or don't need to roll at all. (Resistant: +3, Rare Condition)

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Pursuivant

Most sleep cycle problems should be handled as perks or quirks.

Deep Sleeper (p. B101) seems to dispose of most such problems.

[RogerBW]

Personal experience: in 1998 I started working in jobs that had 3-4 12-hour shifts in a row, then a 24- or 48-hour break and the opposite 12-hour shift. Within six months I had gained the ability to go to sleep at any time of day no matter what my body clock thought it was, and wake up refreshed. I'd be entirely happy to roll this into Deep Sleeper.

[The Colonel]

There's probably a disadvantage in having really poor adaption - many years of watch standing and shift work have left me with a tendency to develop crushing migraines if my sleep schedule is disturbed, and I've met a variety of people with similar stories. Probably not much use as adventurers, but there you go.

[Pursuivant]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Deep Sleeper (p. B101) seems to dispose of most such problems.

Per RAW, yes.

If there were rules for jet lag and similar circadian rhythm problems, it might not. Sure, you could go to sleep easily, and stay asleep, but you might still feel fatigued because of the time zone change. Since the usual solution to jet lag is to try to stay up and go to bed at the same time the locals do, it might even be counterproductive.