The Effects of Somnacin
OK, so this is the first time I've gone and posted an entire meta on the comm, but I didn't want to have some discussion on my LJ and some here, I'd rather have it all in one spot, so here it is. :D
One of the more interesting - and in some ways rather unsettling - things in the film is the discussed side effect of Somnacin. Eventually, uses stop dreaming. Now, basically everything I know about REM sleep - the sleep in which we have the dreams that we actually remember - comes from Wikipedia and random bits of trivia I've picked up over the years, so I could be off about this. But based on the Wikipedia page, REM sleep is helpful in memory and that not having it can cause depression. That would explain why long-term dreamers apparently have to use the PASIV for recreational dreaming from time to time; it would also explain, possibly, some part of Cobb's depression. Granted, he's got plenty of reason to be depressed, but I doubt messing about with his brain chemistry has improved the situation any, especially since he was in Limbo.
But I don't just want to talk about the side effect we know of. Because I don't think it always happens. This is something I was talking over with a fellow player on an Inception RP, because as it happened both of our characters had dreaming side-effects that did not include losing the ability to dream. Why do I think that loss doesn't happen to everyone, and that others have different problems? Simple. Every time you get information about a drug, you get told about the side effects - or you do if you're getting your information from a responsible source, anyway. Some people have no side effects, some unfortunate people get most or all of them, and a fair few get a couple of them. Clearly, drugs affect people differently, and why should Somnacin be any different?
In the case of my fellow player's character, the girl was unfortunate enough to be part of an experimental program that had her going under from the age of thirteen or so. IIRC, the character is now twenty-six and her body has become so used to years of sedated sleep that trying to sleep naturally is all but impossible. I'm told this can happen in real life to people who use sleeping pills for too long, that the body gets used to the chemical trigger and can't sleep without it. I think this is a less common effect, though I am convinced that most if not all dreamers suffer occasional bouts of truly nasty insomnia. I'd say this sort of near-total insomnia would happen to a character like the one described because she was first exposed to the drugs while her brain was still developing. That would lead to a different effect; it's part of why a lot of drugs are considered unsafe for children, because the effects could be different and haven't been studied yet.
For my character, she has the opposite side effect from the one in canon. Admittedly, in her case this was helped by being an unwilling guinea pig for a drug that was designed to trap a person in their nightmares, but I gave Arthur this same issue in one of my various fic universes and he just did the standard dreaming. Instead of losing the ability to dream, your dreams become much sharper and more realistic, though perhaps less common. You always remember them when you wake up, but when you're asleep, you might be less sure that it is a dream. And a lot of those dreams are probably unpleasant, considering the sort of things a long-term dreamer might have seen and would therefore have lurking in his or her subconscious.
Honestly, I'm probably overthinking the effects of Somnacin, and making too much of a line that was likely meant only to set an ominous tone, but I like overanalyzing and if you visit this comm I imagine so do you. So what side effects do you guys think might also result from Somnacin/dreaming itself? Don't let me be all alone here!
One of the more interesting - and in some ways rather unsettling - things in the film is the discussed side effect of Somnacin. Eventually, uses stop dreaming. Now, basically everything I know about REM sleep - the sleep in which we have the dreams that we actually remember - comes from Wikipedia and random bits of trivia I've picked up over the years, so I could be off about this. But based on the Wikipedia page, REM sleep is helpful in memory and that not having it can cause depression. That would explain why long-term dreamers apparently have to use the PASIV for recreational dreaming from time to time; it would also explain, possibly, some part of Cobb's depression. Granted, he's got plenty of reason to be depressed, but I doubt messing about with his brain chemistry has improved the situation any, especially since he was in Limbo.
But I don't just want to talk about the side effect we know of. Because I don't think it always happens. This is something I was talking over with a fellow player on an Inception RP, because as it happened both of our characters had dreaming side-effects that did not include losing the ability to dream. Why do I think that loss doesn't happen to everyone, and that others have different problems? Simple. Every time you get information about a drug, you get told about the side effects - or you do if you're getting your information from a responsible source, anyway. Some people have no side effects, some unfortunate people get most or all of them, and a fair few get a couple of them. Clearly, drugs affect people differently, and why should Somnacin be any different?
In the case of my fellow player's character, the girl was unfortunate enough to be part of an experimental program that had her going under from the age of thirteen or so. IIRC, the character is now twenty-six and her body has become so used to years of sedated sleep that trying to sleep naturally is all but impossible. I'm told this can happen in real life to people who use sleeping pills for too long, that the body gets used to the chemical trigger and can't sleep without it. I think this is a less common effect, though I am convinced that most if not all dreamers suffer occasional bouts of truly nasty insomnia. I'd say this sort of near-total insomnia would happen to a character like the one described because she was first exposed to the drugs while her brain was still developing. That would lead to a different effect; it's part of why a lot of drugs are considered unsafe for children, because the effects could be different and haven't been studied yet.
For my character, she has the opposite side effect from the one in canon. Admittedly, in her case this was helped by being an unwilling guinea pig for a drug that was designed to trap a person in their nightmares, but I gave Arthur this same issue in one of my various fic universes and he just did the standard dreaming. Instead of losing the ability to dream, your dreams become much sharper and more realistic, though perhaps less common. You always remember them when you wake up, but when you're asleep, you might be less sure that it is a dream. And a lot of those dreams are probably unpleasant, considering the sort of things a long-term dreamer might have seen and would therefore have lurking in his or her subconscious.
Honestly, I'm probably overthinking the effects of Somnacin, and making too much of a line that was likely meant only to set an ominous tone, but I like overanalyzing and if you visit this comm I imagine so do you. So what side effects do you guys think might also result from Somnacin/dreaming itself? Don't let me be all alone here!