Mike Emanuele 11/1/16
me12@geneseo.edu about 200 words INTD-105 Science Writing
In “Postcards From the Edge of Consciousness,” Meehan Crist sheds light on sensory deprivation: a process in which someone loses sight or sound for an extended period of time. In this article, Christ mentions how sensory deprivation can be used for exceeded rest. The rest gained from the sensory deprivation is more than a normal bed night’s sleep. During this deprivation, the user is set in a pitch black room and sustained in a bed of water. This gives the user a feeling of flotation, feeling nothing but the line of water against his or her skin. According to research, this is a form of restricted environmental stimulation therapy, or REST. REST is often used by sports athletes because of it’s benefits in performance and reduction in stress. In some cases, users exposed to Sensory Deprivation for too long start losing cognitive skills and experiencing powerful hallucinations, giving a feeling of unease.
This article surprises me with it’s amount of benefits, but at the same time frighten me due to it’s side effects. I’ve always wondered why the body needs to shut itself down for eight hours at a time, and what causes the mind to dream. These are things that I would like to look more into.
I liked how you included the fact that athletes use sensory deprivation. It related the topic better to the real world and showed how valuable sensory deprivation can be.
I feel that you did a great job summarizing this article. I haven’t read the article but after reading your response I feel like I understand what it was about. The side effects you wrote about surprised and frightened me as well. I think you could come up with a really interesting research question about why we need to sleep.