I’m curious, what is important thing(s) do you think rest provides?
And, as you answering that, do you think there might be a difference between “rest” and “sleep”? And if there is a difference between those two, do you think that those two different things might provide different benefits?
You see, if I were telling your story (and asking your question) I would be talking about “sleep” which provides different benefits beyond “rest.” People are not meant to go without “sleep.” The effects of “sleep deprivation” are well documented and begin within a very short period of deprivation (like the short period you shared with us).
There can be a whole bunch of reasons.
If you’re pulling your all nighter, say, to study, doesn’t it make sense that you’d be mentally weaker because that’s the center that you’d mostly been draining. And that’s only with simple studying. If you’ve got worry or angst or negative self-talk going on about your studying, that would be make you feel that much more weak.
And we don’t know (nor can tell) the particulars of your own energy system. We can’t say if you may have blocks, which may allow some centers to replenish more easily but not flow up (or down, as the case may be) to other energy centers. Nor do we even know how you might have been refilling them (other than we know it wasn’t through sleep).
I avoided this in my original reply because your answer to this question depends on your answers to my questions to you (at the beginning of the original reply). If you don’t really think there are important things that rest of sleep provide to you, your answer to this question might be a “perhaps.”
Me personally, I don’t think you would be able to stay at your peak functionality. You might be able to sustain a performance level that others might call “peak,” but it wouldn’t be your “peak,” because as you increase your level, you’d also be increasing your “peak.”
It’s his current normal. I wonder if it has been his “normal” before his wartime experience. (If it hadn’t been his “normal” then, doesn’t that answer your question?)
And you don’t tell us anything about the quality of his life or experience under his current “normal.” Or how that “normal” relates to whatever “normal” you might want for yourself.
