The longest you've ever gone without sleeping?

Jeez some people can stay awake a long time - I would fall asleep after around 16hours...my longest time is 20h (wake-up at 8am, go to bed at 4.30am).

I love my beauty sleep - I sometimes fell tired after sleeping 7h. Am I enjoying my sleep too much? :eek:
 
* After missing one night of sleep, expect fatigue, reduced attention span and problems with short-term memory.
* After missing 2 to 3 nights, one will also suffer poor coordination, muscle twitches, marked loss of concentration, impaired judgment, blurred vision, nausea, and slurring of speech. Often one will experience episodes of microsleep (briefly sleeping for a few seconds at a time, without being aware of it).
* At about 4 to 5 days without sleep, expect extreme irritability, hallucinations, and delusional episodes.
* After about 6 to 8 missed nights, add slowed speech, tremors in limb extremities, memory lapse, confusion concerning one's own identity, unusual behavior, and paranoia to the list.
* After 9 to 11 nights without sleep, fragmented thinking occurs (beginning sentences without completing them), and prolonged episodes of unresponsive "conscious stupor."

Apparently, lack of sleep causes all of these adverse effects because it causes brain damage. During a normal day, the brain is slightly damaged by the body's metabolism, and by free radicals. When one is asleep, the brain engages a repair center which slowly mends the tiny injuries, restoring the brain to its full potential. During the deepest phase of sleep, called REM, it is believed that the repair center itself is repaired. But the longer that sleep is prevented, the more damage one's brain accrues, and the more sleep one will require to repair it. Too much damage, and it becomes irreparable.

Also there is a very rare disease called "Fatal Familial Insomnia" in which the sleep center of the brain is damaged and results in insomnia and all the symptoms above over a period of months and then eventually dementia and then ultimately death.

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=133

So if we don't sleep ... we will die :).
 
I feel sorry for the guys who signed up for that lab test.
 
I'm with you Tibby.Dude!

Can't join in the staying up all night records but I slept for 13 hours once, had a really tough game of squash and that night I put in a few good zzz's
 
I'm a mild insomniac so I tend to sleep an average of 2-4 hours a night. Up till 3:30/4:30 and awake at 6:30. That goes on indefinately.

Most fun I had was staying up for 4 days straight. Had a huge project due and got my hands on a playstation with FF7 :D I remember on the 4th day moving through my house in a total dwaal. I sat and stared at a doorknob for about 10 minutes trying to figure out what to do with it...

Slept a solid 19 or so hours after that. I'd go without sleep if I could.
 
AntiThesis - I agree with you. One day the technology will exist when sleep will become optional. Then I shall only sleep when I want to enjoy my personal holodeck experience.

BTW, been up for around 37 hours now. Feeling ok, just a bit tired. Did you know, that the feeling of tiredness is psychosomatic? Technically, that could be turned off. However, Tibby is right that without sleep, the body functions degrade and eventually death will result.

Peace.
 
You really wanna feel carp... this term, me and my buddies had a lan on a sunday, which we just continued til monday... went to school with out sleep. Now you have teachers shouting, trying to explain stuff, yet your brain can't function except to think -must kill counter-terrorists-

Never again :)
 
4cer said:
You really wanna feel carp... this term, me and my buddies had a lan on a sunday, which we just continued til monday... went to school with out sleep. Now you have teachers shouting, trying to explain stuff, yet your brain can't function except to think -must kill counter-terrorists-

Never again :)
Click to expand...

Lol! Yeah I have had a similar experience!
 
longest for me was from monday morning 5am till saturday 1pm. Was in the army. had to get everything ready cause of some fscking general coming for an inspection. even had to spitshine the dirt. But i cheated, had a medic buddy that gave me benzedrine :D
Felt like schit for about 2 weeks afterwards. Like flat coke
 
"Benzedrine was used to enlarge nasal and bronchial passages and it is closely related to other stimulants produced later, such as Dexedrine (d-amphetamine) and methamphetamine." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzedrine

You do know they were giving you something of the army's version of tik, right? And to scare some other's out there, it's similar to what they give you for flu.

I wonder if you are allowed to refuse such substances in the army...?? I had a lecturer who did his stint in the Isreali army, and the stories that came out of him....

BTW, rofl @ sig (and thanks to google).
 
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I was once up for a weekend: got up on the Friday morning, went to bed on the Monday night. I haven't been able to get close to that since, and given the circs of how I ended up there, I don't mind not being able to!

BTW, as a followup to Debbie's input on military 'tik', meet modafinil, more info here.
 
My wife can stay up for long periods of time as well.She actually reckoned me last night that she figured out why she goes to bed so late: She thinks sleeping is a waste of time :D
 
benzedrine's also addictive as hell. Fscking medic only told me that afterwoards. Guess that was part of the reason i felt so crap
 
Ermm, It wasnt exactly legal the benzedrine bit :D
But the vitB shots., You were volunteered to take it. They stabbed you with a needle that you could crawl through almost. You had a choice there. Take it in the ass or in the arm. No other choice. Dont know what it's like now, been out of that particular institution for a few years now
 
uk reality tv:-)
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/shattered/news/reports/sat_winner.html
pt a bunch of people in a room, tell them whomever stays awake the longest wins.
after 7 days, the last 3 or 4 contestants (I cant rememeber exactly) were put in a pitch black room and told to lie down, so an indefinite amount of time. The one who fell asleep last would win.

reducing the number of contestants during the first few days was done via competitions to do with memory and reflexes...I plainly remeber after about 6 days this man and lady facing off....each were told to count to 60 in their head, and whomever gets closest to the correct 60 seconds gets to stay in the house. I think they were 0.6 off the correct time. After 6 days awake.

to see what the brain does to lesser minded individuals after sleep deprivation, just read the highlights
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/shattered/news/reports/fri_highlights.html
 
Gru said:
Ermm, It wasnt exactly legal the benzedrine bit :D
But the vitB shots., You were volunteered to take it. They stabbed you with a needle that you could crawl through almost. You had a choice there. Take it in the ass or in the arm. No other choice. Dont know what it's like now, been out of that particular institution for a few years now
Click to expand...

A few years ago I went out with a guy who had served during the 'border wars' time period, and he used to be in charge of the drugging/vitamin-ing/whatever you want to call it. Again, interesting stories.

I find it the subject of drugs in the army all very fascinating, not just the pharmacological side of it but the sociological side of it - the confluence of pharmacology, neurology, "repressive state apparatus" (army), public morals and individual personal morals, and how all these aspects come together. This interest is deepened by what international and national law says on the subject.

And to add to this, it's even more interesting when considering the somewhat recent accusations in the USA that blame a widely prescribed anti-post traumatic stress disorder drug for a spate of 'family killings' on military bases (where a dude who has taken this anti-PSTS drug goes and kills his wife or kids or all of them).

(Just as a side-note, and to go even more off-topic here, I am not one to easily dismiss such claims that lay the blame of erratic/murderous/violent behaviour squarely on a prescription drug. A few years ago I spent several months on a mild Prozac prescription (20mg fluoxetine/day). I did a bit of research on it and found out that the makers of the drug have been taken to court numerous times for the alleged horrific side-effects of Prozac. Unfortunately, I think the US courts have never been able to find enough evidence to support claims that Prozac causes things like suicide ideation, that it makes certain users more prone to suicide, that it 'unlocks' violence tendencies in previously non-agressive people, that it causes wildly unstable emotions if a user is 'set off' by an incident that causes them anger, etc etc. I can tell you now that these side-effects are very very REAL, and very the reason I independently decided to stop taking Prozac. I've been Prozac-free for 3 years, 1 month, 2 weeks and 6 days now, and would never go back on it again).

Sorry, so off-topic here. Just the subject is a minefield of interest to me.
 
werner said:
uk reality tv:-)
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/shattered/news/reports/sat_winner.html
pt a bunch of people in a room, tell them whomever stays awake the longest wins.
after 7 days, the last 3 or 4 contestants (I cant rememeber exactly) were put in a pitch black room and told to lie down, so an indefinite amount of time. The one who fell asleep last would win.

reducing the number of contestants during the first few days was done via competitions to do with memory and reflexes...I plainly remeber after about 6 days this man and lady facing off....each were told to count to 60 in their head, and whomever gets closest to the correct 60 seconds gets to stay in the house. I think they were 0.6 off the correct time. After 6 days awake.

to see what the brain does to lesser minded individuals after sleep deprivation, just read the highlights
http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/S/shattered/news/reports/fri_highlights.html
Click to expand...

Wow, thanks for sharing these links werner. I love any kind of 'things' that represent an exploration of the human mind, what it is, how it works, what personality and behaviour is, how it is formed, what role genetics vs environment play, consciousness, soul, and basically anything that provides insight into what makes a human being a human being.
 
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