Reading this article on sleep deprivation makes me think I was a lot quicker mentally than I am now. Since I was little, like many children, my bedtime was mandated by my parents. Even up till high-school, I was rarely up past 11pm as my mother had a policy against me using the computer by barbarically pulling the computer's power plug out of the socket.
It wasn't until university that I really started shorting myself on sleep. The combination of freedom, high speed broadband, and difficult courses meant long hours studying and taking recreational time when I can. It wasn't really conducive to most social activities. It wasn't until second year that I finally let go of trying to do it all and started playing games instead of work. The lack of sleep killed me until I finally stopped going to classes. Luckily, my fundamental knowledge helped me maintain a decent GPA.
That lifestyle still took a toll on me though. My mental energies, whenever there were any spare from studying, was dedicated to finding new ways to break the game system, to eke out some advantage. While the hours of sleep were there, they were inconsistent, and the quality of sleep remain low. As a result, a lot of what I accomplished was less spectacular than what I did in high school.
I think that was when I decided to start really focusing on acquiring knowledge. In order to be recognized as intelligent, you need to be either quick-witted or knowledgable. Knowing that my mental reactions were shot from the lack of sleep I inflicted upon myself, I decided to acquire as much knowledge as possible. This is part of the reason why I learn: to be considered intelligent.
This article I think reinforces what I suspected since university. That I really should sleep more in order for my mental speed not to deteriorate. I've since lost my calculation speed that helped me win math competitions, but I think the knowledge base of several major topics was a good enough trade-off for me.
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