Here are some comments from some of the scientists who are interested in Tony's research
Dr. Robin Rodd says . . . .
"Throughout human history, sleep deprivation has been an important element of initiation ceremonies, vision quests, healing rituals and feats associated with super-human abilities. The anthropological literature is replete with accounts of people who, after having gone days without sleep, were able to perform mental and physical tasks not normally accessible to humans. Frequently, these experiences provided the basis for symbolic and technological innovations in the communities in which they were performed. Several scholars have suggested that heightened information processing abilities during periods of sleep and/or sensory deprivation resulted in heightened degrees of inter-hemispheric neurological functioning. Because of a lack of adequate experimental studies, however, social scientists have been unable to link socio-cultural analyses of sleep deprivation and peak experiences with their bio-physiological correlates.
Wright’s sleep deprivation research project, which combines a long-term raw foods diet replicating that of early modern humans with the collection of data on cognition and physiological functioning, promises to yield exciting new breakthroughs in our understanding of the limits of human consciousness, and the ways that we may be able to optimise our abilities.
Wright’s study will build on the Manchester Sleep Deprivation study, which indicated that cognitive and physiological functions improved over a five day period without sleep, and is guided by the hypothesis that the left, dominant cerebral hemisphere, associated with linear, rational, and linguistic thought, is highly dependant upon sleep, while the right cerebral hemisphere, associated with imagistic and emotional cognition, is more efficient and requires less sleep. Scholars across a range of social and medical sciences have indicated that a number of practices, including sleep deprivation, alter the pattern of hemispheric discharges (resulting in increased non-dominant hemisphere discharges), and that the ensuing neurological patterns can be entrained to healthy ends. As an anthropologist concerned with understanding both the biological and cultural bases of optimum human functioning, I fully endorse this project."
Dr.
Robin Rodd
Lecturer
Department of Anthropology and Archaeology
James Cook University
Townsville, Australia
* * * * * * * * *
Darold A. Treffert, MD says . . . .
"What an interesting and worthwhile project. If there is any way I can contribute to your event, if only to endorse the effort to anyone necessary, please let me know. I think any of the standard neuropsychiatric (NP) tests would be insightful. And, of course, EEG and REM studies would be critical, I would think. Common knowledge and much of the literature indicate that sleep deprivation of over 96 hours is very unusual and produces a variety of mental effects, let alone physical effects. 12 days would be a real record and a most worthwhile contribution to the literature on the effects of sleep deprivation. Since sleep, dreaming and memory are often supposedly linked together, memory tests before, during and after might be especially useful and informative.
I think your project is an important one. If there are ways I can contribute, please let me know. And certainly keep me posted on the progress with the project in any event. I am very interested in its outcome."
Darold
A. Treffert, MD
St.
Agnes Hospital
430 E. Division Street
Fond du Lac, Wisconsin 54935
* * * * * * * * *
"It was my pleasure to work with Tony Wright whilst a Professor of Sports Psychology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Tony approached me following a tv broadcast to ask me if I was interested in investigating his capacity to void the theory described problems of sleep deprivation and in fact to check his claim that there was considerable degree of enhancement which accrued from this as would be predicted by science.
It
was my pleasure to work with Tony and one of his colleagues, in an experiment
we saw Tony stay awake for a period of five days. My students and I did shift
work to ensure that this was so. I have to describe the experience as being
quite remarkable. Tony, I'm afraid in the early parts of the study looked
like death warmed up and certainly displayed a tendency of micro sleep on
a couple of occasions. These periods took no longer than a matter of seconds
however, and interestingly throughout the whole five days process that we
observed Tony he didn't yawn and indeed showed better humour and manner as
the experiment progressed - in stark contrast to my colleagues and I who were
starting to feel the strain!
Tony and his colleague were tested on a variety of different tests investigating
cognitive and perceptual function interestingly, Tony's' performance during
these tasks improved rather than degraded through the period of wakefulness
and again in stark contrast to as would be predicted by theory. I would be
more than happy to provide endorsement of my observations of Tony's capacity
and would fully endorse further experimentation and investigation as to the
phenomenon which he is reflecting."
Yours faithfully, Dave Collins.
Dave
Collins, Performance
Director (Visiting Professor in Sport Psychology at The University of
Edinburgh.)
UK Athletics Ltd
Athletics House
Central Boulevard
Blythe Valley Park
Solihull
West Midlands
B90 8AJ
