Keep your enemies awake

onlyinmydreams -- your "sex" bomb thread got me thinking -- I wonder if the military has ever tried to come up with some type of chemical that would cause insomnia in enemies. I have suffered from severe insomnia for years and I know how it affects my mind -- if you were to add the stress of battle on top of the mush you get for brains with insomnia -- I would think you could just walk in and round up the sleepy enemy -- if they didn't get cranky and just shoot each other first.

I know that in some hostage situations they have pounded buildings with music to try to keep the hostage taker awake. But wonder if it has ever been done on a larger scale and using some type of stimulant instead of music.

j.

I know they toyed aorund with the idea of using '___' as a weapon, but the project was dropped over some really bad press, and I have read a few sites claiming that the '___' idea actually worked to the opposite end and created a sort of super soldier, hightened sensory perception, accuracy, energy, etc.

twitchy I remember reading something about that also -- I also remember thinking that it was kind of a bizzare idea. I was thinking something more along the lines of the type of stimulant like caffeine -- that would just keep them awake -- an aerosol of Red Bull or something

jm

Why not use an orexin blocker to induce acute narcolepsy in people? When they wakeup they are in POW camp...

Besides the effects are pretty harmless , even in pretty large concentrations

The Russians tried an opiate gas during the hostage in the theater, but this gas surpressed the whole CNS too much, people stopt breathing, blocking only orexin would just put people in a deep natural sleep.


[edit on 14-1-2005 by Countermeasures]

Well it's kind of the same idea as the music, but I've heard that during the first gulf war we had b-52's dropping a ton of conventional surplus bombs left over from decades before. They'd carpet bomb an area that they thought the iraqi's were in, then as soon as one bomber would leave, the next would come in and continue.... 24 hour bombing to keep 'em awake. (this was in the desert areas or outside of cities tho, I wouldnt even think of carpetbombing a city in a day when we can slam a gps (or laser) guided bomb through a large window...)

That might be doing the enemy a favor in the short term we want our own soldiers to be alert and awake for crazy amounts of time. We even have drugs like benzidrine for just that reason. The whole point of making the enemy stay up for a long time is that after set amount of time they have to fall into a very deep sleep.

We want the enemy to fall asleep not be alert and awake. Using something like what the russian's had would be much faster to the same ends, ofcourse if they dont die of a overdose.

Originally posted by justme1640
onlyinmydreams -- your "sex" bomb thread got me thinking -- I wonder if the military has ever tried to come up with some type of chemical that would cause insomnia in enemies. I have suffered from severe insomnia for years and I know how it affects my mind -- if you were to add the stress of battle on top of the mush you get for brains with insomnia -- I would think you could just walk in and round up the sleepy enemy -- if they didn't get cranky and just shoot each other first.

I know that in some hostage situations they have pounded buildings with music to try to keep the hostage taker awake. But wonder if it has ever been done on a larger scale and using some type of stimulant instead of music.

j.

Why would you want a bomb that reduces their ability to fight when you already have bombs that can kill them instead? Saves ammo!

Shadow -- good point -- I guess I was thinking about the fuzzy thinking and loss of coordination that you can get after a long bout of insomnia -- to me sleep sounds like heaven so while I might not want to bomb and kill the enemy I don't want them to have what I consider the ultimate wonderful thing

Counter measure I don't know anything about orexin blockers but what you described sounds like a great idea.

jm