What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep, and what happened when you did it?

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2000

Answers

When I got my first PC with my own money in 1994, I stayed up for 6 days learning about it and playing with it. After the third day, I was extremely happy about everything. The least little detail of my environment (dust, penny on the floor) delighted me. After five days I stopped talking, or thinking about talking, or thinking in words.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2000

These days I go to bed at 22.00 hrs. and get up at 05.30. All in pursuit of getting a parking place at school-- I get there at 07.00 so I can park near the Center. I *hate* that. Some nights-- Sunday, usually --I can't sleep at all. And so Mondays I have zero memory, zero focus.

The longest time without sleep? Hmmmm... a few weekends in my clubland days-- Thursday night through Sunday afternoon-- dance floors, after-hours parties, "at home" parties...brunch. Of course, lots of Ecstasy helped... By Sunday I was a wreck-- but I'd manage to be at work Monday...

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2000

i was up for 37 hours once.. after 24 hrs had passed i had a splitting headache.. but it went away once i reached school.. and was as fresh as can be for the rest of the day..

when i did get the chance to sleep, i slept for around 12 hours

-- Anonymous, November 09, 2000

I think it would have to be only 24hrs. I have really weird sleeping pattens. I have exams at uni currently, so last night I only had 2 hrs sleep, and now it's 4am again and i am tired but don't really want to sleep. I am having fun not studying at the moment, but was too tired to go out out (to a club) etc. I just watched a video with a friend and kicked back. I know that if i go to sleep now i will wake up tomorrow and then have to study for my exam on monday, but anyways, i prefer to stay awake at night, better tv watching, night clubs off course rock at nights.=,more peaceful. SO right now, if i don't go to bed i won't have to study ... any time soon.

pls note that this msg has been affected by Sleep Deprivation so perhaps it is the most relevant lol

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2000

Pretty much sums up my experience. Of course a bit of self diagnosis involved.

http://www.medicinenet.com/Script/Main/Art.asp?li=MNI&ArticleKey=7775

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2000

roughly 36hrs ..... the real test is when i go for weeks with 2-3hrs of sleep in a 24 hr period. it's called insomnia, and drugs are the only way to manage it. cronic medical conditions require a specialist. in the end w/out sleep we would all cease to exist. now if i could only remember my dreams ............

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2000

Back in my student days (high school and college undergraduate) I sometimes went two or three days without sleep (why? because I was young and foolish and I thought it was interesting)... a couple times I was tired enough to hallucinate... once was a passenger in a car at night and I was concerned that the driver was not slowing down even though the traffic light at an intersection ahead had turned red and, as we got closer, I could see a large 18-wheeler coming along the road that crossed the highway at that light but when I voiced my concerns ("Hey, the damned light is red!") the driver asked me what I was talking about and I realized there was no truck, no traffic light, no intersection, just an empty highway. Weird.... but I had seen it all so clearly.

These days my 15 yr old thinks that staying up all night is really cool and my 18 yr old daughter complains about having insomnia... meanwhile I've realized that getting up at 5:30 a.m. means I really need to get to bed before midnight and it is delightful if I can get to bed by eleven p.m. even if it means not making lunches for the next day. And if I get up at 5:00 a.m. I can check email while the coffee drips and even find time to go out for a two mile run before breakfast.

I have terrible problems sleeping when I am away on a business trip ... especially if I'm in Europe, compounded by jetlag and internal clock confusion... fall asleep but then wake up at two or three a.m. and can't get back to sleep. I am a zombie from sleep deprivation by the time I get back home (can't manage to sleep on airplanes).

Jim

-- Anonymous, November 17, 2000

I plan to raise money for charity by walking a very long distance without having a sleep. I would be interested to hear any comments about how long people can stay awake for and what the effects of prolonged sleep depravation are.

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2001

I haven't slept for ten days, cause that would just be too long.

-- Anonymous, February 08, 2001

One-hundred and five (105) hours. Sunday about 2PM to Thursday, midnight.

I have a sleep disorder which, basically, involves not having what most call a 'body clock' -- my body doesn't know what time it is. Thus, during this time, I put in four days at work, etc - about 80 hours, plus the other "normal" stuff one does. Slept about 10 hours Fri, a dozen or so more on the weekend.

This, for me, is similar to what most would term an "all-nighter" - ie, 48 hours awake. More normal is a 60-up, 12 down, 60 up, 12 down, 12 up, 12 down week.

-- Anonymous, April 17, 2001

The most I went without sleep is 7 days. Understand, I could not go to sleep. And after the first day I lost the ability to tell how long I had been without sleep. Afterwards, others told me how long it lasted. Caused me to hallucinate, become much more hostile than I normally am, and for a period of time I went into what was like a zombie state. I could hear/understand what people were saying but I was unable to talk. I was not using alcohol or street drugs. I had been on Paxil for depression for a year and had had problems with sleep but not to this degree. Apparently, the loss of sleep the first 24 hours uncovered a potential for mania and it flung me over the next 6 days headlong into a bad manic episode. So now, I have to be very aggressing about watching my sleep. Even varying when I go to sleep can cause me to edge toward hypo-mania. Its a drag. I've missed alot of work (without pay - the sick leave ended way back) because if I have a bad night (even with the two types of sleeping pills I'm on) then I know that I can't risk going to work and pushing myself further in hypo-mania/mania. Lack of sleep is my trigger. I cringe when hear of people intentionally going without sleep. They just don't know if they might opening a pandora's box.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2001

Well so far I've made it to 31hrs 40mins and I'm still going strong. I just didn't feel like sleeping last night, and I don't think I will tonight either. Never been for 48hrs before, I wanna see if I can do it and what effect it has on me.

-- Anonymous, August 10, 2001

We're doin it right now, we've been awake since 8:00 am Fri. morning , its now 10:05 Sat. morning and we are still going strong!

-- Anonymous, September 15, 2001

The longest I have ever been up for would have to be over or 135 hours. The 1st day I was great, felt well laughed at everything.

Then I became more aggressive, eager, in a manic way. As the days went on, I started to forget things, was incapable of making good decisions. Then quite a few hours later I became very very nervous.

The next day I was distant, floating on reality, I was unable to think correctly, forgetting things more, talking and recalling events became hard, I thought I had some kind of life threatening brain disease worrying my self.

By this time I was feeling very weak, dizzy and in a big big dreamy state and my heart was racing. All I was mainly doing is sitting doing nothing other than watching the TV and worrying and worrying and having panic attacks, and on the last day, I collapsed on my bed and slept for 6 hours.

I have been trying to recover my sleep since, but this has been almost impossible, although I have repaid some of the debt, as I am feeling a lot better.

I am continuing to feel better as the more sleep I achieve i.e. 10 hour sleeps, but the insomnia doesn’t help and neither does going to bed at 12:00am or 1:00am and getting up for college at 7:15am.

I have to say reality is not connecting with me, as it should be and I still feel tired, but I am persevering, the insomnia is getting better, which means I am managing to sleep longer.

A big tip; Staying awake for long hours with out repaying sleep in the space of a day is not worth it, as it is very harmful "mentally" etc….

-- Anonymous, October 11, 2001

im a highschool student and i never sleep more then 3 hours a night... during the summer i stayed up for 38 hours... i realized that my body just hates me... haha... but i can only sleep for 3 hour then i wake up or 12 hours and stay up for 2 days... is that strange for a 16 year old... you tell me...

-- Anonymous, October 17, 2001

I've been awake for 7 full days and nights straight now, not even a second of sleep, i haven't felt tired or experienced any of the halucinations that everyone else apparantly does after a day or two. Is this odd? I have no problem wih going to sleep, i just don't get tired so i don't bother. Should i be hallucinating or any other weird things, i'm almost interested to see what it's like. Please give me some feedback.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 2001

The most likely answer, Christopher, is that you're dead. Think hard, and maybe you'll remember the horrible accident so you can move on to the afterlife.

-- Anonymous, October 21, 2001

starting today, I am going on a 6 day sleep deprivation experiment. It is said that sleep is merely a learned habit. Scientists cannot prove WHY we need sleep, so I am going one step further and going without sleep. 6 days- no sleep and if my theory works out, I will need minimal sleep from here on. I think that the hallucinations and paranoia are merely our senses overloading. My professor said that sleep is merely a time for our brains to process everything. My theory is that without any foreign drugs, other than my normal days caffeine and nicotine, I will be able to function normally by using meditation techniques, constantly being busy and having a little help from my friends. I tried this once a year ago, but not to such this degree. I stayed up for 3 days using meditation as an alternative way to process thoughts and using exercise, alternative diet, and almost constant movement to stay awake and sane. The Fourth day was normal for me. No hallucinations, paranoia or anything related to normal sleep deprivation. I think this is going to work. I plan on recording everything and turning it into my thesis. This WILL work. I will be the first man to not need sleep. Wish me luck.

-- Anonymous, November 20, 2001

According to the book "Psychology" By John Santrock, the longest time anyone has ever gone without sleep was by Randy Gardener during a school science experiment. With monitering by sleep researchers, he managed to stay awake for 264 hours, about 11 days, with zero sleep.He suffered hallucinations, speech,and movement problems. He then recovered fully with 14 hours and 40 minutes of restorative sleep.Amazing hey? I thought so!

-- Anonymous, November 22, 2001

I'm in the middle of my longest period now, 43:48 hrs. Trying to do a paper for school that is getting increasingly harder to do as I start noticing all the odd little visuals I'm getting. I've got my coffee though, so onward I go!

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2001

The longest period I had gone without sleep would be the month of September, it was just after the attacks -- worried about one of the contacts from a mailing list I run. The first time I really slept was the weekend of the convention when I got to the campground -- so if I was tired when I was at the con that was the reason. I had gone without sleep days at time before -- ended sleeping for three days after that.

-- Anonymous, November 28, 2001

I believe it was 36 or maybe 48 hours once. I'm pretty sure I cheated somewhere along the lines and took a 5 minute nap or something like it. Actually after about 30 hours without sleep it felt like I was. The body finds a way to compensate for one's ability to achieve sleep, it may not be 100% but it something to sustain life, thus my feeling like I was asleep.

One day I would like to be part of an experiment that deprives the subject of sleep, it seems that I will have to practice that experiment with myself during a time where I having absolutely nothing at all to do for a week or two, do you think you would just die? Whoa that is scary.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

Hmm.. As for the longest time without sleep (thus far) its been at least 51 hours.Me and my friend stay up and play DF2 or I work on my site. After the 29th I start to babble uncontrollably in between ten minute laughing sessions which really fuckin annoy my friend. After the 40th hour i see many different colours around and notice lots of things a nail in the wall I never saw..

The strangest thing was..I only needed about 6 hours before I was ready to go again..well anyway..see you all in dream land..

-- Anonymous, January 02, 2002

I was awake for 170 hours.That is 2 hours over one week. The first three days my eyes were burning and, I was extremly tired, after awhile I couldnt hear very well, and then at one point I was unable to talk. I couldnt understand anything. The people who were recording me awake said I just stared at the wall the last two hours only blinking every 20 minutes, I couldnt remember the last 24-36 hours.

-- Anonymous, January 04, 2002

I've been up for two weeks and a day almost exactly, well within an hour. I started kinda tweakin' for the first 2 days, dry eyes and the like. then came the 'zone' I knew where I was but I didn't know how to communicate with others very verbally, couldn't write for shiat, next came the immobile state...sat in a very uncomfortable position for about 37 hrs. then, and I can't confirm this, but I started halucinating and finally passed out after 15 days of recorded sleep dep.

-- Anonymous, January 10, 2002

the longest i've ever gone with sleep (since i continually try to break my own record) is 9 days straight. i did this last summer when i had the most free time.

after 1 day, i was great. i was hysterically laughing at everything and found everyone funny. i had a hunger for caffiene and nothing else, thus i fed the hunger.

after 2 days, i was basically the same. had difficulty thinking and my reaction time decreased greatly. this affected my gaming abilities profusely so. after being unable to do anything correctly, i became greatly frustrated and often angry for no reason. i spent hours staring at the computer monitor as i do during most of my free time while playing MUD's.

after 3 days, i was losing my grip on reality. i was blissfully flying. i felt high though i was on no drugs. i was willing to say or do anything. the part of my mind that made me cared didn't seem to work anymore, thus, i didn't care.

after 4 days, i WAS flying. everything was spinning. i started feeling weak, and i had difficulties walking. i had difficulties sitting even. i was constantly light-headed and always falling over. my ability to make even partial sentences had totally diminished by this time.

after 5 days, all thinking capabilities had withered away. i drooled sometimes for no reason and my eyes were glazed over at other times. i hap slight speech problems. i couldn't say full words, pronounce some things, and i muttered quite a bit at this time

after 6 days, i talked to myself constantly. i didn't dare talk to others about anything. i became extremely paranoid and anti-social. i stuck to playing MUD's and talking to friends online, other than that, all verbal speech had ceased to exist between me and others.

after 7 days, i began yelling for no reason at all. i yelled at myself, became frustrated at everything. i became quite insane as i started hurting myself when i couldn't do simple things like walk to the door without tripping even once.

after 8 days, i thought i knew everything. i kept everything i thought to myself. most of everything that had happened within the past 5 days became one blur and i couldn't recall anything before 5 minutes from any given time. at this time, the only activity i was able to do was type on the computer which isn't hard since i do it everyday anyway and you just need to sit. i struggled with reading and not talking like a 5 year old.

after 9 days, someone yelled at me and punched me in the gut. told me to get some sleep. appearently, i was being an ass or something. i no longer had problems even staying awake, which i only had problems doing up till 4 days. i was quite incoherent, i couldn't think, i was in all sense of the meaning of this sentence: "a brainless, stupid, walking pile of human flesh and filth with very little movement". i had extreme difficulty remembering to do simple tasks like taking showers. i had problems finding the bathroom in my own house. i couldn't recognize my friends and often confused them with eachother.

(note: all of the affects of a day, passed on to all the days after that one, slowly progressing and getting worse and worse as time went on) and that's what happened with me after not sleeping for 9 days. i finally did get some sleep, which i actually had problems doing believe it or not. i ended up sleeping for 2 hours and i was fine. later in the week, even after excessive sleep, i still had problems and still do to this day. (note: expect another post to this after i break my record of 9 days without sleep)

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2002

as without sleep right now, i can't think too well as i'm always medicated for multiple things so i'm screwy. that supposed to be the longest i've gone withOUT sleep is 9 days... etc, etc..

-- Anonymous, January 20, 2002

Looking at this, I doubt any of you can techincally claim your times ;-p

Among the common consequences of a large sleep debt are attentional lapses, reduced short-term memory capacity, impaired judgment and the occurrence of "microsleeps."

A microsleep is a short period of time, usually between 10 seconds to a minute in length, in which the brain actually enters a sleep state, regardless of what the person is doing at the time. The affected individual often does not know that this momentary blackout has occurred. The effects of these microsleeps combined with attentional lapses, however, can be dramatic.

The whole article is at http://www.mhsource.com/pt/p980301b.html and is very interesting

Personally (almost certainly with micro sleeps) I have done many allnighters, but never two. I dont alter my sleep on the second night and wake up feeling fine. I have done 36 hours straight in the office working on a merger analysis and I please to see that the quality of my work didnt decrease :-) I heard of one analyst who was there for 3 days and had to be taken to hospital, but this could be affected by the stress we are under!

-- Anonymous, January 24, 2002

I find this discussion very, very interesting to me. I am fixing to go on a "bing" if you will, of no sleep. I guess I am curious to find out how this will affect me. Mostly, I must admitt, I am curious about the hallucination part of it all. I have abused Robitusson Cough Syrup before, just for the "triping" part of it. I know this might not seem like a good reason. Butt, never the less curiosity killed the cat. Well for the record. I have been up now since 1p.m yesterday, it is now 3a.m, only 14 hours so far. I will report back after my experience's. Goodluck, and Havefun.

Sincerely, Howard T. Bohannon

-- Anonymous, January 31, 2002

This discussion surely has lasted long, many thanks to search engines.. I'm also interested in this kind of stuff.. personally I've tried to stay awake long for only 2 times. Both times, I was constantly doing things with my computer and listening to music..mostly techno. I was at a LAN-party where music was playing all the time.. I remember from my second time with the party, I had not had sleep for 2 days. At some point I lost all contact with people. I couldn't talk or sense what was happening. When this started happening to me, the clock was about 3am. The next thing I knew I was in the other part of the huge hall we were in. I was terrified, because I had no knowledge how I managed to get there and how long I had been in that state. After getting back to my place, which I searched for quite a bit, I looked at the clock. It was about 6am. That was a darn long time completely unaware of the real world, I thought. Also during the event I heard a fan blowing air into a room. It sounded like all the music I heard at the party were playing at the same time. I thought I was going paranoid.. and when I went to get some air into the city, I heard a train arriving the station. The sound of the train sounded exactly like a heavy metal band. I could hear the drums and everything! :)

-- Anonymous, February 04, 2002

Me and 4 mates are on our 73rd hour of sleep deprivation and kicking all these fucking pikers above

-- Anonymous, February 18, 2002

3 days, I was working on a big programming project that started Monday morning with a deadline of Friday. I commited myself to finish it. By Tuesday morning, I felt great and over energized, in fact I went to the gym that day and beat some of my lifts. I continued through Tuesday night with the programming though I had a hard time reading any of my reference books and I would lose my train of thought occassionally. By Wednesday morning, I was kind of dragging. I did not want to eat and I hardly drank anything even water. I subsisted most of this day on cheez-nips and water. I finished the program by Wednesday afternoon. But a very simple error with adding a & behind the ifstream in a function declaration gave me alot of frustration. I tried to carry the no sleep thing into Thursday but I ended up eating dinner that night in front of the TV and falling asleep on the couch. I woke up Thursday at around 1 or 2 PM. I am going to try for a week next time. Heck, the Navy SEALs stay awake for a week during their Hell Week all while doing strenuous exercise, so maybe I would be able to last that long. Dunno but I will try.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2002

Last year I went on a drug binge on the weekend and stayed up the whole time. It started on a Thursday. I slept well on Wednesday night, and then I just stayed up all the way until Monday afternoon when I finally went to sleep. On Thursday night me and a few friends took a couple of hits of acid and had a party. We stayed up all night at the party, then we decided to go ahead and have another party. So along comes more acid and by this time, the acid doesn't seem to be as strong, so I take 3 hits this time. So, after we do the usual stuff (playing with glowsticks, listening to dance music, all kinds of stuff) a lot of people go home. Usually for me, an acid trip would last about 5 hours, with after effects and minor hallucinations lasting 12 hours. Also, its impossible to sleep when on acid because your mind is constantly stimulated. So its Saturday now and my friend and I decide we are gonna try and get some sleep, and it doesnt work. So, we open up a bottle of 151 and drink a little and try to get some sleep, nothing happens. So we decide to stay up for two more days and see what happens. We were a little gitty and our muscles were sore, but other than that, everything seems normal. So in short, the longest I have stayed up is around 60-70 hours, not really sure.

-- Anonymous, February 23, 2002

im 16 yrs old. one of my good friends and i dont get much sleep @ night, we talk on the phone once in a while. she told me that she heard that going for 10 days w/o sleep can kill. so i said i would try it, just to see what its like. she doesnt want me to, i told her no promises. dont tell her that im doin it. =) i'll see what happens, and i'll keep a journal. i have to go on with my day as usual ->deliver papers on tues, fri, sat mornings, army cadets on tues, run 45 min every morning w/ dog, go to school for 7 hrs of day, and everything else. so i'll see what happens.

-- Anonymous, March 01, 2002

To respond to the thing above... I belive sleep is one of those homeostatic systems, thus you can't die from sleep deprivation. If you're going to die from it you fall asleep...

As far as doing it and staying sane, meditation would be the only way. the time is used to organize thoughts in a deep sleep i think... People who get electric shocks to keep them from getting into this state, while getting non-deep sleep go crazy after a few days.

I'm thinking about doing an experiment related to sleep deprivation. I've stayed awake for over 50 hours before, and my skills in some limited things (e.g. First person shooter) increased a lot. All the atention to detail made me whip some ass.

I'll have to finish my research, and wait until i have a lot of time, but it's something i definately intend to do.

-- Anonymous, March 04, 2002

I have gone 33 hours without sleep. That doesn't really hold up to some of the other's records but hey it's my personal best. I found even after just a day that my senses changed. My hearing was more clear and my vison a little blured. I have done alot of allnighters for no real reason besides for the heck of it. I don't know if I would want to try for longer, allthough I am sure I could do it. Anyway this is an interesting little chat here.

-- Anonymous, March 10, 2002

Well, I am really not writing this for myself but for my mother. I am 13, and have had to suffer when she cannot sleep. It's not that she doesnt want to, it's that she can't. She has horrible mood swings, she can't focus (I am afraid to get in a car with her), she has a hard time thinking and remembering things. My mother suffers from RLS (restless leg syndrome) insomnia, sleep deprivation ect. She hasn't slept GOOD in..20 years, having had 5 kids and all..Being sleepless for 48 hours or so is nothing compared to what she goes through. We have looked for answers for a really long time, which is why I am on here, and unfortunately I have not found any, but I will continue looking. Just be thankful that you have the ability to sleep, rather than just the ability to stay awake for longs periods of time.

-- Anonymous, March 17, 2002

Last November, I had masses amounts of papers to write for my university courses. It began one night with my terrible roommate and her fan. I didn't sleep at all that night, I went through the day much the same as I did any other day that I had no sleep...Groggy, irritable, and unable to focus on my studies. The following night was the same, the roommate and the fan. Mind you, when this fan was on, and was blowing right at my face in the bed, it sounded like helicopters in my room. So, since I could not sleep, I continued writing papers. By day three, I was having terrible headaches, mood swings, food cravings, and was feeling my body making me more tired. By this time, I could not let myself sleep. There was something in my mind forcing me to stay awake, though I would much rather have had sleep. Also, my classes and assignments were elements that I felt I needed to attend and complete regardless of my tiredness. It wasn't as though I had procrastinated the papers, everything was assigned at once, which left me incredibly overwhelmed. Also, my longing for the Dean's List overpowered me. From November seventh until the twenty-third, I had no sleep. I was zombie-like. I remember going to classes and feeling like my head weighed about fifty pounds, not being able to see clearly, I became ill with colds and other minor illnesses, bursting into fits of laughter, lashing out at friends (whom I am grateful to for understanding the stress and importance I felt from my overload of classes and assignments as well as the roommmate from hell), forgeting how to do simple tasks such as open bags of chips, not having enough strength to turn the door knobs etc... It was terrible. I must have been the worst peson I could have possibly have been.

-- Anonymous, March 21, 2002

Had a lot of work due this week at my university, and ended up sleeping very very little. This is the most sleep deprived I have ever been in my life.

Here's where I stand:

+ Wake Wednesday 7:30am. + Head to bed at 5:00am Thursday morning. + Fall asleep maybe 5:30am thurs morning (+22 hrs) + Wake at 9:00am Thursday morning (-3.5 or -3 hrs sleep) + Worked on english paper until 6:30am Fri morning (+23.5 hrs) + Computers shut down for maintainence at this time or something, so I lie on the study lounge couch + Wake at 7:30 to some a girl in the dorm talking to me, while I'm apparently tapping my fingers on my alarm clock (brought out from my room) rythmatically. I'm very confused, don't know where I am, what I'm doing, whether I'm asleep, etc. Confusion continues for about 2 - 3 minutes. (-45 min sleep)

+ Finished paper (which was extremely poor quality compared to what I usually produce). Took a shower, got dressed. ...went to class + Tried to nap from 1:30pm-2:30pm. (+7 hrs) + Dunno when I fell asleep but I awoke at 3pm, confused again. (- 1 hr sleep) + Got a ride to go home for spring break. Napped in the car for maybe 45 minutes to an hour. (-1 hr sleep)

And that's where I am. So I've been awake for about 57.5 hours with about 6 hours of sleep total. It's been at least 35.5 hours since I've slept more than 1 hour, so I doubt I've had any REM cycles in at least 36 hours.

Random notes on the experience / Effects I've noticed:

Its very weird when I speak. Unnatural.

Although tired, I feel like I have endless energy in that I could maintain this state of tiredness for a long time.

When trying to sleep on the couch Fri morning, I heard footsteps and saw a man walking down the hall, then vanish completely. I was like.. is it a ghost, a hallucination? So I said out loud "if you are there, show yourself! give me a sign!"

After seeing the man I began to hear strange, human noises (footsteps, breathing, etc) and so I would pretend to be asleep so that if they *were* ghosts, they "wouldn't worry about me" seeing them. Then I would suddenly turn my head around to see if they were there. Did that maybe twice.

Waking up was very strange after the nap on the couch... very confused.

In Econ class it was weird because I had gone to two classes without sleeping (so it seemed)... lost some sense of time and relative days.

Couple times in class today, I would just close my eyes and feel the "blissful heaviness" of my eyelids... very enjoyable. One other strange thing I noticed - after I showered and put clothes on, it felt as though my skin was more sensitive to the clothing. I could feel every place it touched my skin. Very weird. Still have the feeling.

Now that I've shared my experience with you, I'm heading off to bed.. spring break is here, and I'm in my own home, and have my own bed. This will be one hell of a sleep.

9:10pm 3/22/02 --- Wisconsin

GOOD NIGHT, Drew.

-- Anonymous, March 22, 2002

Well i am currently starting my own little experiment right now. I am in the intial stages right now of it. I started at 10:30 A.m. Monday Morning. It is currently 4:10 A.m. Tuesday. SO roughly 18 hours so far. One of my friends did this last year. He was the subject for a college experiment that his friends were doing. He lasted 70 hours roughly. I learned a few things from his trial that i hope to use and maybe i can pass on to you.

1st rule, at least for me, is that i am not going to be using any illegal drugs like Exstacy or Meth. THe only drugs i will use are Caffeine and Nicotine and Effidrin.

Advice that i have recieved from him.

NO EXCERCISE. It will drain you of all energy. Walks are good. Later on drink a pot of coffee every two hours followed by 4 glasses of water. You will be going to the bathroom soo much that you won't be able to sleep.

Play video games or have someone around to talk to or to do an activity.

Reading after the first 2 days is not helpful.

Chew gum. It's an activity.

Ciggs and pop and coffee are mainstays.

Well that is the advice that was laden upon me by him. I am realizing that i am rambling on right now, but i am just zoning out. oh well.

I will update this every day. Hopefully more than once. If you don't hear from me after a day or two then i gave up.

PS. First notable side effect. Zoning out and slight shakes occassionally.

Wish me luck and post any thoughts or advice. I want to make this legitamate. THank you

-- Anonymous, March 26, 2002

I set out to hit 100 hours last summer and landed it successfully with nothing really noticable besides cold chills through the second and third days, after that I really had little desire to sleep. I did however stubble on fact that I was bipolar a day later when I lost absolutely any concept of personal inhibition and entered what I thought at the time was some spontanious religious revelation (Granted this is before I had a diagnoses).

In a short version: I thought God was speaking to me in absolutely every occurance of my waking day (After the sleep dep experiement). Everything I heard and saw had such profound spiritual impact I would fall to my knees and cry to the heavens at something quite trival indeed. At about the time I was convinced God had choosen me as some new version of a savior about then I was also began realizing that Satan was probably out to foil my plans. I perceived the basic Good/Evil clash that occures in all events of the normally perceived world just in an over amplified fashion where I became only interested in the underlying form of what was actually going on. Often this preoccupation was so deeply rooted I failed to grasp the actual situation for what it was at face value. My preoccupation lead me to contrive the only viable solution which was to conjuer up a Utopian Society (referred to as grandiose thoughts). Soon I was convincing all my friends of my revelations and plans for make the world good.

As you might have guessed I was soon arrested and commited to a state mental facility, infact, four different hospitals took me in within the month prior to my 'experiment', just because I had so much physical energy from the mania and adrenaline I could brake through things that normally would have restrained me (i.e. cop cruiser windows, plexi-glass door windows, you name it).

I apologize for the long post, but being as I am fully recovered now and have spoken with numerous people whos circumstances weren't quite as severe as my own, but worth taking into consideration as WORST case scenarios.

Nothing wrong with experimentation, but do yourself a favor and pick up a symptom list for MANIA, which is triggered by sleep deprivation, and please be careful.

-- Anonymous, April 21, 2002

Im now on my 37th hour! woo! this is my yearly stay-awake-athon (even tho i didnt do very well at all the past 2 years) well anyway im looking up stuff to read on halucination part of it. I sorta get pictures, like seeing split second stills of wierd things, like my sister peeking around the corner of the door at me, or some formless creature on the floor, or things that i cant focus on seem alive for a second but never have i had any moving halucinations. I also get VERY paranoid at sounds. Loud sounds scare the absolute shit outta me. Last year i was awake for 2 and a half days after a night out and i had to walk home from my friends house because i didnt wanna crash there. The walk took 1 hour and was the scariest thing thats ever happened to me, crossing lights, cars and people talking were all very very freaky. Ok well im rambling.

Anyway, wherever i am at now is very euphoric, this site has entertained me quite a bit, your funny stories are making me laugh too much. Just half an hour ago i was watching the powerpuff girls and couldnt stop laughing, that show is insane!

Anyway, my record is a bit more than 3 days or 70 hours that was 3 years ago and ended when i accidently fell asleep for an hour while watching music videos. Im now going for a new personal record, im planning to last for 5 days or untill i get the halucination results decribed by other people! And in 2 days from now while still awake i have to go out and DO one thing unfortunately. I have to preorder my copy of morrowind at EB, i hope i dont just stand there behind the counter drooling and pointing at the letter m wondering why the clerk doesnt understand my request.

Anyway, wish me luck!

-- Anonymous, April 27, 2002

The most I have gone without sleep, not by my own choice, is 4 days. I then crash and burn for about 2 days, not knowing what day it is when I wake up, I have to check the day on my watch. I have a herniated lumbar disc that not only causes quite a bit of pain, but causes some thoracic vertebra to "out" and pinch some nerves. I take Vicodin ES prescribed by my Dr. I have been told by my Dr. that I need an MRI to see the extent of the damage. I have tried all other options, such as manipulations by a spinal specialist, Prolotherapy Injections (6 at the same time in the lumbar ligaments) by the same specialist. He sent me to my current Dr. who says surgery is the next and last option. I have also tried chiropractic, but these are all just temporary options. I cannot pay for an MRI or surgery. I have noticed that after a couple of days without sleep, I get very lazy, lethargic, depressed, irritable, and I am unable to rationalize the simplest of thoughts. As the days that I am awake increase, I notice I get very angry at simple things, I get very angry with people I come in contact with for no apparent reason other than the fact that I am in constant pain and haven't slept and I have absolutely no patience for anybody. I have gone from working out 6 days a week to sitting around my apartment being depressed. I worked out in extreme pain until I could no longer tolerate it, which was May 2001.

I cannot get a job with my back like this and Social Security turned me down for Disability and Medicare, so now I have to have a hearing on May 16th. I do not qualify for health insurance due to "pre- existing" conditions. If I get my Disability and Medicare, I will get my back fixed, and hopfully the pain will go away and I will be able to resume a somewhat normal life and get a decent night's sleep .

-- Anonymous, May 03, 2002

We are filming a documentary in July called 'an exercise in sleep deprivation' we are looknig for cast members who will be willing to put themselves through 7 days of sleep deprivation. We will be filming in London from the 1st - 8th of July.

for more information please visit: http://www.opiate.i8.com

thanks.

-- Anonymous, May 07, 2002

Who was the New York City radio talk show host that set a record back in the 70's for doing I believe 9 days on the air without sleep? This was famous because the MD/PhD's studied him during and after the "experiment" and he had permanent personality issues afterwards. I thought I saw this on discovery channel but couldn't find it searching their website. Thanks for any help.

-- Anonymous, May 19, 2002

I just completed 36 hours (10:30 AM Friday to 10:30 PM Saturday). I'm on the verge of droppping dead right now but I'll try to find something interesting on TV to keep me up =)

-- Anonymous, June 23, 2002

I stand by others in response to sleep deprivation as a trigger of a manic episode. Most don't have to worry about this, but some of us do.

Restless-leg syndrome is another that I have that unfortunetly lived with. Keeps you up all night, and in turn makes me manic.

Go with what the doctor ordered as best as you can: Eat an apple a day, and get 8 hours a sleep a night!!

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

The longest period of time I have gone with out sleep is 14 days. I have a current diagnosis of restless les sydrome and depressionn. I ended up having to be placed under at the hospital. I can honestly say I have a good understanding of what prisoners of war go through. The late night infomerials is enough to drive any one crazy. There is a reason Tony Little's Gazelle is advertized only at night. My long term effects are memory loss, weight gain, lower immune systems and stress of my loved ones. Please never try to deprive yourself of sleep. It only comes back and bites you in the but.

-- Anonymous, July 09, 2002

Wow, I always used to start on "my" Thursday and run out at about "my" Tuesday. I don't work the typical M-F week, hence the addition of the "my"s

Anyhooo, I've been sleeping like crap lately (no drugs unfortunately - just stress) and my eyes always look like they used to when I was high. I didn't really give a fuck back then, but now I can't really have my eyes lookin' all crazy spooky.

Ack, I need help. Make my eyes normal please. Tell me how, cause eyedrops make them really red and I've been drinking tons of water, so it's not dehydration.

Thanks.

-- Anonymous, July 10, 2002

This Post Is Long: Read It Anyway, I Am Well Spoken, (As Far As You Know)

Been almost everywhere above and several other places which will remain unnamed. Point is, I work on a 4 or 5 day schedule of no sleep, 12 hours or so of sleep and it takes me several hours, sometimes half a day to recover. Why? I enjoy microsleeps, they are the singlemost interesting occurences one can have. Don't believe me? Stay up until you have one and you are conscious of it. Dreaming while you are awake, I have been doing it so long, I get in loops in my own mind and sometimes takes me a little bit to wake up....Look, screw lucid dreaming and all that crap, all you have got it what is in your head, so if you feel like getting the most out of it, i.e. you don't want the hood welded shut, stay up until you're a freak of nature, people will smile at you, the birds chirp, you feel like time doesn't exist to you, who knows maybe it doesn't. The mind is a powerful and well designed instrument that gets us from A to B, so it's got a few bugs and apparently the beta testing isn't quite done but everyone still decided to download the pre-release. Some day someone will figure out how to un-kink the freakin hose and we will all have a party around the sprinkler. Look, if you even so much as tried to understand this, I suppose you are on that winding road to (in)sanity, the drive deep inside yer own mind is a peaceful one if you embrace it as such. You go drivin through the fields and she'll shoot out your tires. (()))(())Point 1(())(()) Metaphors are an inescapable side effect of running a sleeping schedule like I do for several years, get used to it, or go to bed. Good night, I am at around mmmm.....30 hours, it's about to become manic munchie time (I usually eat hoards of raw sugar in the form of gummy bears, neon sour worms and such, mountain dew....etc..) then come the microsleeps, usually those last 3 hours or so, then I am fully coherent and could explain the inner workings of a sugar crystal to you (as far as I know) this lasts a little while, then everyones' speech is usually louder than mine, but no matter how loud I speak, or clearly I try, it seems they always come back with a "huh", so I repeat it. Anyways, at some point around 50 hours I'd say, comes the really coherent stuff, I like to ponder things like why they called He-Man's cartoon the Masters of the Universe, when clearly that floating hoodie wearing guy with the "O" shirt was biologically superior, as well as the bird lady etherally superior to him. I liked he-man, but darnit, why did a chump like that get such a cool sword and they couldn't even give Azrael from The Smurfs two ears that weren't notched. (())Point two(()) The insanity is quite controllable with caffienne, nicobacky mini-thins and red-bull type drinks. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. ((Point 3)) Make sure you eat and drink plenty throughout whatever you do, regardless of how smart or above normal consciousness you feel, your body still needs the basics. I passed a kidney stone one time around day 4, the morphine from the hospital was quite an added bouns to my insanity, my girlfriend drove... :) Please make sure you don't drive and wreck, I had a friend front end a mapletree one time from just 28 hours or so....he's still alive, but it's the point I am trying to make,....uh...that I am trying to make. Hope you all enjoyed my post, I am quite alive and free spirited, sometimes I can say that daydreaming to me it a reality. I am quite intelligent enough to separate the truth from rest, please do the same if you are going to stay up long periods of time, and don't ever forget to EAT.

any comments sendum to hoyle@insightbb.com

love to hear from any of yous guys.... for any reason.

-- Anonymous, July 23, 2002

longest was roughly 57 -60 hours at that point it wasn't really a concern

first 24 hours - uneventfull pulled lot of all nighers

next 7 hours in class- slightly disoriently, regular conversation possible, but no inability to make wise desicions noted

next 20 hours - increased audible sence, freuquent urination, adrenaline high

next 7 hours - distress, mono sylabolic speach, hightened anxiety, overwhelming sence of smell, touch, sight, hearing, loss of appetite

following 20 hours - undisturbed sleep woke up for a few minutes, then returned to sleep for another 10 hours.

right now i've been up for 21 hours, i'm hoping to get sleep in about an hour, maybe get an hour in of sleep before i have to get up again... sigh

-- Anonymous, September 27, 2002

i am curently heeding for a world recerd, for longest time without sleep. iam currently at 52and a half hrs. wish me luck!

-- Anonymous, September 28, 2002

Has anyone ever tried this using drugs, not illegal....but, I have ADHD and take medication which helps me concentrate and stay focused, so would the affects be different if i were to do this on my medication? i think i will try this, i play hockey so i may also us some energy boosting drugs prior to practices and games, i also heard that this can effect your immune system so, i will be taking supplements for that, i'll see how long i can do this....

-- Anonymous, October 12, 2002

The longest i have stayed up is around 70 hours about 2 or 3 years ago.. i dont really remember. im going to be trying to beat that record in about a week.. so you will probably hear from me then too.. im going to try and not eat throughout this too(i'll prolly end up eating anyway).. im also going to try and hang out with foreign exchange students.. i'll be pretty confused.. and i hope i start to hallucinate.. geez..

-- Anonymous, October 28, 2002