I got to study the effects of sleep deprivation on the first horizontal Bakken well I worked. In charge of steering the well, I was on 24/7 through the lateral. I got 8 hours of sleep that week, not counting the times i caught myself bouncing off an instrument rack while standing. 1st 24 hours, brain fog moving in, generally tired, more irritable, less efficient, started double checking everything. After that, the brain fog moved in with a vengeance, but the tasks I generally had to perform were ones I had done thousands of times before, so that took over for the more routine aspects. Still double and triple checked the results. Small mistakes began to degrade efficiency, and toward the end of 48 hours, started seeing shadowy things in the edge of my vision, like the imaginary critters that jump out in front of you after 14-16 hours of driving at night. I ignored those.
By days three and four, I could play just about any song I wanted to in my head, which kept the occasional voice covered up. I had moments of a few seconds to a minute I called "micro nods" where it was like I had dozed off. (possibly what the article is describing) If a bit of equipment malfunctioned, I took it personally, as if it were sentient, and had it in for me, at least until rationality prevailed. The voices were nothing evil, just pleasant voices out of the blue, but there was no radio on.
This led to what I call the 'protracted zombie state': too tired to be irritable, still able to reason, but much slower, able to function, but triple checking results to ensure they are correct. What would have taken 10 minutes at the start of the week took a half hour or more.
I have come to the conclusion that Meth heads just suffer from sleep deprivation with the added twist of paranoia and a persecution complex, while remaining unduly agitated as an effect of the drug. I only had coffee to get me through.
