Who Needs Sleep?

[Adrian Correia]

It's scary to me how many of us have had the same experiences....I just wanted to highlight my own for other people who are thinking of pushing the envelope.....thanks for all the kind and stern words from my brothers and sisters here....everyone take care of yourselves and have a wonderful holiday...especially you Andrew, 30 hours!!!

 

[Sally Shamas]

A dozen of people died on their way back home from 24h ,48h or 72h shoots here in Lebanon. I personally know a keygrip that almost lost his son who works also in production as a video assist , his son had a car crash after a 48h shoot , lost an eye and was in a coma for a while . After recovering ,The guys is still working as a camera assist and his dad is still a keygrip ... You are so lucky ! Lhamdella 3al Salemeh Adrian!
P.s.: just in case u r wondering wat the last sentence means , it means Thank God for ur safety !

 

[Leo Ticheli]

Of all the dangers inherent in our business, sleep depravation is clearly the most deadly.

I never allow my crew to undertake (pun intended) a long drive after an overtime shoot day. Any producer who does so should be run out of the business. Maybe jailed. Maybe sued. Probably all three.

Good shooting and best regards,

Leo

 

[Mark L. Pederson]

So....two and a half hour travel to set, sixteen hour day on set, two hours travel back.....a minute from my house and I fall asleep at the wheel. Please guys, if you are tired pull over and sleep a bit....I thought I was fine and I just passed out. If my red cases had been in the back I would probably be dead. Thank God for seat belts and air bags.

Adrian I glad you are okay. Scary stuff.

 

[Steve Sherrick]

Adrian is a good friend of mine and I have to say I was shocked when he told me what had happened. It was a real eye opener. I have to say, I'm very guilty of pushing the envelope. Most of the time I'm just trying to cram so much stuff into a day. But it's dangerous on many levels. We need sleep. If you deprive yourself of this necessity its starts to weaken your system, causing health problems, affecting your personality, and in the worse case scenario putting your life, and the lives of others in danger. I'm working on trying to re-program my clock. It's hard. Many years of damage. Diana Schwarzbein, an authority of metabolic healing says that it can take 6 months of 10-12 hours a day of sleep to finally get back to normal and then you can start to get back to 8-9 hours a night. She says normal sleep looks like this.

1. You should be asleep within 15 minutes of head hitting the pillow
2. Over the next 8 hours, you should cycle through various stages of sleep, including REM (dream) sleep
3. You should not get up to urinate or for any other reason, even if it is easy for you to get back to sleep.
4. When you wake up, you should feel rested.

If not, you have a sleep disturbance.

It can take a while for you to feel rested, even when you have got a good night's sleep if you've been sleep deprived for a while. It takes a long time to correct this. At some point though, your body should start to recover and you should feel rested again, but it will be frustrating at first.

There are a ton of things that can cause sleep disturbance. Even if you are attempting to get normal sleep. The list is too long to go through, but I suggest if you are having trouble to read her book, or others on how to get through these issues.

I only mention these things as sleep is a constant struggle for me, and one that I'm trying to correct.

Fortunately Adrian is okay. Otherwise, we would have lost a very talented DP and a good person. Take this stuff seriously guys. I know I am.

 

[Jeremy Newmark]

http://www.12on12off.com/

 

[jonedan]

Hey,
BADLY. I woke up all the time and couldn't get any sleep. Don't use computer in bed.I've taken sleep meds only once, when I was having a minor breakdown at friend's and he offered me some of his. They didn't really work well, except the next day I felt like a zombie.

Thanks.

 

[Brook Willard]

So....two and a half hour travel to set, sixteen hour day on set, two hours travel back.....a minute from my house and I fall asleep at the wheel. Please guys, if you are tired pull over and sleep a bit....I thought I was fine and I just passed out. If my red cases had been in the back I would probably be dead. Thank God for seat belts and air bags.

Glad you're okay, Adrian. I lost a friend a few years ago to falling asleep at the wheel. It's one of those things that people don't really think of as a possibility until it's too late. Glad you made it out okay.

I found myself doing 31.7h on the clock this weekend before having to drive 25 miles home in the middle of the [second] night. Strangely enough, I wasn't really that tired. That said, there have been times when a simple 15h day has drained me beyond the point where I could safely drive. Take Adrian's warning, everybody... this sort of shit does actually happen.