Sci Fi about people who don't sleep?

November 29, 2021 3:45 PM

I'd like to read some sci fi about people who don't need to sleep, at all. Any suggestions? I'm currently reading Beggars in Spain, and while it starts out promising it seems to be veering away from plot and into economic theory.
posted by The corpse in the library to Media & Arts (23 answers total)

TV Tropes: The Sleepless
posted by zamboni at 3:50 PM on November 29, 2021

Power Nap comes to mind, it's a fully-complete webcomic on this topic. (or, more precisely, it's set in a world where nobody needs to sleep, but the protagonist's allergic to the no-sleep pills, so he's scrambling to figure out how to keep up in a world where sleep is a weird medical condition)
posted by CrystalDave at 3:51 PM on November 29, 2021

I have no suggestions, but BOY does the Beggars series veer away from the original premise, especially after book 2.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:28 PM on November 29, 2021

It's a very small tertiary plot in a sprawling book, but the "focused" in Vinge's A Deepness in the Sky might count.
posted by eotvos at 4:37 PM on November 29, 2021

Not sure if fantasy / magical realism is relevant but Julia Armfield's "The Great Awake" is terrific (I'm very much looking forward to her unrelated upcoming novel, which has an excerpt at tor.com).
posted by Wobbuffet at 4:38 PM on November 29, 2021

I seem to recall the alien people who are the topic of the Asimov short story and novel Nightfall, either don't sleep never bothered to evolve a sleep cycle, and why would they, it's never dark outside. Their world with 6 suns has no nighttime, except for every 2000 years in which they have a day with just 1 sun in the sky (the other 5 being on the other side of the planet) and it is eclipsed by another passing planetary body. The result is a collective madness as people see the night sky, and civilization collapses.

I don't believe Asimov really covers the issue of them sleeping, so if sleep is what you want, this won't work for you, but if a story of day/night differences is what you want, then try it.
posted by Sunburnt at 4:55 PM on November 29, 2021

Alastair Reynolds deals with this in a few stories, including Diamond Dogs, and in one book in particular, The Prefect.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 5:01 PM on November 29, 2021

"Understand," by Ted Chiang is an excellent short story about a man given an experimental treatment to heal his brain following it being deprived of oxygen for a time. The drug works too well, and vastly increases his brain function, carrying him to superintelligence but also removing the need for sleep.

It's probably the best depiction of superintelligence, perhaps because it breaks the "show, don't tell" rule which in this scenario often turns superintelligent protagonists into emotionless perfect automatons because they, (and normal human writers of regular intelligence) can't communicate what's going on in their mind. Chiang either is superintelligent himself (and his award record suggests this) or he knows how to fake it for his characters.
posted by Sunburnt at 5:03 PM on November 29, 2021

Also see this Reddit thread on the exact same topic.
posted by Conrad Cornelius o'Donald o'Dell at 5:07 PM on November 29, 2021

it's not sci-fi but Lawrence Block has a series of novels about a man who suffers permanent insomnia, but gets by fine.

The Evan Michael Tanner books.
posted by philip-random at 5:14 PM on November 29, 2021

Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon has one line where the main character scientist develops a drink that means he doesn't need to sleep anymore and the subject isn't touched again.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:01 PM on November 29, 2021

J G Ballard! The short story "Manhole 69" is about the subjects of an experiment where sleep has been rendered unnecessary...
posted by clockwork at 7:02 PM on November 29, 2021

iirc, the titans in varley's gaeia trilogy don't sleep.
posted by j_curiouser at 7:16 PM on November 29, 2021

Between the Strokes of Night by Charles Sheffield.
" A UN financed research lab is pursuing a strange goal: manipulate metabolism and brain function in order to eliminate the need for sleep."
posted by Zumbador at 7:41 PM on November 29, 2021

In Arthur C. Clarke's Tales From the White Hart, a character tells a series of (science fictionish) tall tales, including one in which someone's snoring is cured by a serum that also keeps him from needing sleep. His new ability to go without slumbering is not a blessing.
posted by wjm at 9:31 PM on November 29, 2021

The Mister X comics by Dean Motter. The title character is addicted to a drug he makes himself, which keeps him constantly awake. It's not a very positive depiction of sleeplessness, though.

I think the initial run with the Hernandez Brothers is pretty much the best, but there have been a bunch of series over the years.
posted by Playdoughnails at 9:42 PM on November 29, 2021

Nod, by Adrian Barnes is about an alternative future Earth where one day almost everyone suddenly loses the ability to sleep.
posted by Jabberwocky at 10:26 PM on November 29, 2021

In the Wizard of Oz series, the non-human characters such as the Scarecrow do not need to sleep. The author takes care to mention what they do while the other characters rest, such as patiently watching a spider spin a web all night.
posted by champers at 4:51 AM on November 30, 2021

The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep and Never Had To by D.C. Pierson.
posted by neushoorn at 6:41 AM on November 30, 2021

Not sure if this fits exactly, but I really liked Black Moon by Kenneth Calhoun . In it… a plague slowly causes the infected persons to become insomnified raging zombies. The infected also get angry when they come across anyone effectively sleeping. ;0 zzz
posted by bitterkitten at 12:54 PM on November 30, 2021

Karen Russell's Sleep Donation, about an insomnia epidemic, might fit the bill!
posted by quatsch at 12:41 PM on December 1, 2021

Gene Wolfe's problematic and rarely discussed first novel Operation Ares had a character who was a 'wakey' -- a person who had been, iirc, surgically altered so that they couldn't sleep. The process led to serious physical and psychological problems due to the fact wakeys could not dream.

Wolfe turned in a manuscript of 108,0000 words which was brutally cut to 60,000 by wholesale deletion of entire paragraphs by his then editors. Which was an act which lead him to disavow the book entirely and which he refused to allow to be reprinted in the United States.
posted by y2karl at 8:53 AM on December 10, 2021

On a related tip for those interested in recent Gene Wolfe news, there is
Sci-Fi's Difficult Genius. Well worth reading through to the end.
posted by y2karl at 2:08 PM on December 10, 2021