Sleep deprivation is bad.
Indeed.
Terrible.
Don't try it, don't do it, it's bad for you.
However.
There is one potentially significant advantage that I can't held but notice whenever I'm (1) generally healthy, both mentally and physically, and (2) in an acute sleep deprived state, meaning it's a single day or two on very low sleep.
Before I weigh in subjectively, though, here's Wikipedia summarizing some peer reviewed research:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_sleep_deprivation_on_cognitive_performance#Risk
Risk versus reward analysis is an important part of decision making. Attempting to create a representation and response to a risky situation highly involves the orbitofrontal cortex.[28] In a study that involved risk taking analysis of drivers who had been driving for 12 hours straight, it was found that they were more willing to make hazardous maneuvers and were reluctant to adopt any form of a cautious driving style.[29]
I'm personally convinced that a lot of low-anxiety and neurosis, especially around creativity and social interaction, is our risk-mechanism being broken in modern times.
In the evolutionary environment, a poor decision could be instantly fatal. Almost universally, looking upon high-ranked warriors, priests, or nobility in feudal environments would bring repercussions down upon you if you were of a lower caste.
You see the pattern across disparate cultures, from how the Spartan Greeks treated the Helot slaves, from the samurai's legal right to kill any peasant for any reason, to how the Zulu chieftains would execute anyone of low rank who didn't cower appropriately, to the brutality the lower-caste people faced in India, and so on.
A poor interpersonal interaction could well be fatal to you, and would certainly have long-term ramifications if you lived in a small ancestral-sized tribe, or even relatively well-developed later agricultural societies. It's only with the start of the Industrial Age that people gradually came to be surrounded by thousands and millions of other people in cities, constantly, and that cold-calling for business or being nonchalant in interactions with strangers offered no significant risk of injury or ostracism in most places.
So there seems to be a latent fear there, socially, and one that's not particularly useful any more.
Likewise, creative endeavors threaten the identity, with all that entails. Attempting to do creative work is almost universally beneficial, even if the particular work you're attempting doesn't come out well. Yet people of almost all creative stripes report fear and uncertainty even after having achieved considerable successes.
From where I'm standing, it looks like these are risk-reduction mechanisms gone awry, designed to protect the individual physically, socially, and one's feeling of self-worth and self-esteem. But similarly to the child of an over-protective parent that who is never allowed to go outside and kept in a sterile environment, the individual who is not facing mild risk doesn't grow, doesn't gain immunity to minor failures and troubles, and builds a much weaker and more fragile self-concept overall.
Some people turn to alcohol to get over these issues -- both creatively and socially -- but mild sleep deprivation seems to likewise obliterate the minor nagging overbearing risk instincts in a person, and thus can be quite freeing.
Of course, it's terrible for your health, has nagging carry-on effects for a few days, and chronic sleep deprivation seems to offer none of the advantages of the single sleep-deprived busy day while offering a wide and deep set of disadvantages.
So, don't sleep deprive yourself recreationally. It's just meant as a catchy title. But it is interesting, isn't it?