What if I were to tell you that there was a drug that millions of people were addicted too. With out it, addicts of this drug turn into zombies until they get their fix. Its comforting, safe, relaxing, even euphoric for about 15 minutes, then it steals 8 hours from your life. Such a drug would be considered a massive social problem. Politicians would talk about it, the press would write about it, businesses would spend money on it, and scientists would try to solve it. Well, we are all afflicted by the symptoms of being addicted to such a drug. The affliction is called sleep. Its primitive, and it takes time and life away. People spend 1/3 of their lives sleeping and they spend some of their wakeful life fighting with their body that wants to sleep. Sleepy drivers might be responsible for more deaths then alcohol related deaths. However its very hard to tell if the accident was caused by sleep, as opposed to alcohol or drugs which can be detected after an accident. Here are some stats. In order to deal with this vestigial behavior, intelligent, productive people like Edison, Buckminster Fuller and P. Diddy usepolyphasic sleep to help fight back. A relatively new drug called modafinil also has made in roads in the battle against sleep. This author from the Washington Post stayed up for 40 hours using it writting this article. I think thats pretty extreme. However I am attracted to the idea of being able to sleep less and feel more awake.