I wonder how long a body can go without adequate sleep?

[Bullwinkle925]

Going on 2AM and I'm not a bit drowsy. Guess I should force myself to hit the rack and try to get some shuteye.

[billyskank]

1. About 36 hours

much longer than that and you'll start hallucinating. But your concentration will be seriously affected by the second day.

[LaraMN]

6. That's about my limit.

I can pull an all-nighter, and I'm okay the next day (with sufficient caffeine,) but the next day, I'm wrecked.

[Broken_Hero]

11. thats about my limit

without the use of "stay awake" drugs...The longest I stayed awake was 52 hours, without any drugs...and that was this past January....it was rough.

[Az]

2. The body doesn't need sleep

Its the mind that needs sleep. People start to go cooco for cocapuffs without sufficient sleep. Basically sleep functions to shuffle memories into long term storage. Without the sleep cycle to accomplish this it becomes increasingly difficult to form short term memories and stored memories begin leaking into your experiences. Eventually a full on psychotic break can occur. Not good stuff.

[sarge43]

3. Don't worry. You'll crash soon enough.

I went 74 hours without sleep once. Az is right; it's the mind that needs sleep. Around the 60 hour mark I had a fair idea what barking mad felt like. I don't understand why people are physical tortured to get information. Just keep them awake for o/a three days and they will do and say anything to go to sleep.

[AngryAmish]

15. Stalin's Russia mostly used sleep-deprivation to obtain confessions

[Taverner]

18. It will make them 'talk'...especially if you let the subject start to fall asleep

And then wake them. Do this 4 or 5 times on the 3rd day and you will get them talking.

Problem is, they'll say anything to make you stop, so it's not exactly effective.

I am told (by another DUer) that Sodium Penathol did the same thing, and was equally ineffective.

[sarge43]

21. A good interrogator can sort the good stuff from the babble

I've had sodium penathol (teeth extraction); I completely lack any will power and went off to live in La-La land. "Can you flap your arms and fly?" "Sure. Watch me." However again, good interrogators can probably ask the right questions.

[Taverner]

22. Ahhh but its not just the babble

Good soldiers know enough to throw out all kinds of distractions, or "white noise" so that the truth, if given, is surrounded by a million distractions.

Ask anyone who's served in the Rangers or SEALs what "white noise" is

[sarge43]

24. I understand the technique,

Unfortunately few people, including good soldiers, are trained in the technique and Rangers, SEALs and SAS are rare birds.

[sarge43]

19. Yup. Cheap, easy and doesn't leave a mark. n/t

[Deja Q]

4. Years...

Wait, you're asking about sleep. Not sleeping... O8)

[Godhumor]

5. Ugh, my longest was 60 hours

I came down with a severe case of mono right at the end of a semester in my college days, and I ended up having zero time to do final projects. Two of my professors gave me a one day extension after being absent for 3 weeks.

First night I stayed up the whole night finishing project 1, second night I stayed up finishing project 2, and then had to go to classes. I was barely in my right mind by that point.

I suffered a mono relapse by the end of that day, and I am still pissed about how the professors treated me.

[cwydro]

7. I HATE to miss sleep

I need my 8 hours.

[eauclaireliberal]

8. I need the mandatory 8-10 hours of sleep to funtion at work

Yeasr ago though I was up for 50+. They say that after 72 hours a doctor will be able to clinically diagnose you with mild psychosis.

[Efilroft Sul]

9. I twice hit the 90+ hour mark.

The first time was Hell Week in college. The second was when I was breaking up with my ex, and that was with many 60+ hour sessions of insomnia.

I found that the first 24 hours are easy. By 36 hours, my hearing was distorted for a few hours. By 48 hours, I was too tired to drop off (if that makes sense). Luckily, sleep usually came around the 60-hour mark. But those two 90+ hour events? Geez, they were insane. When I finally got to sleep, I slept 14 hours both times.

[SacredCow]

10. With my last job I did 48-plus on a regular basis...

That company was always short-staffed (Not many people want to work for an evil conglomerate, it seems) and every call weekend became a study in sleep depravation. After 16 hours on the clock, they were supposed to send out relief but nobody was ever available. Keep in mind that this was a Petroleum Laboratory, so details and safety were rather important. After about 30 hours of this kind of work, your mind is not capable of quality (or even safe) work. I never had any accidents, thankfully, but I did fall asleep at the wheel on my way home a few times... :scared:

[AllegroRondo]

12. theres actually a hereditary disease that causes death by insomnia

the people afflicted simply cannot fall asleep and eventually die from it. It takes about 6 months.

[Bullwinkle925]

13. that's a comforting thought ......

:scared:

[AllegroRondo]

17. but fewer than 1 in 10 million get it - nothing to lose sleep over

I heard a story on NPR about it, the researcher had written a book about it. He traced it to one family in Italy, and estimated fewer than 500 people worldwide who may have it.

[MissMillie]

14. My understanding is that most people do survive on inadequate sleep

over very long periods of time, but this doesn not mean that they are as healthy or as productive as they could be if they got the 7 to 8 hours of sleep that (mostly) everyone needs.

A lot of people believe that the 5 or 6 hours they get is enough, but recent scientific studies show that there are VERY few people who function at their best without 7 to 8 hours every night.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. When I was a senior in college, I was editor of the literary magazine

In those days before personal computers, we had to paste up everything and justify the margins by hand. That meant having someone type (on a manual typewriter, of course) each story or poem as close to within the lines as possible and then going through line by line and deciding how many spaces to add and where to move which words in order to make the columns even. It was one of the most crazy-making things I have ever done, and there were three of us, doing all this on top of our schoolwork.

It took us two weeks of averaging four hours of sleep per night. Finally, we took the pasted up manuscript to the printers and I came home.

As I walked into my dorm lounge, I was on a sleep-deprivation HIGH and talking a mile a minute. Everyone kept telling me I needed to get some sleep, but I didn't think I needed any. Finally, one of my friends said, "You're punchy. Go take a nap."

So I went up to my room and crashed. It was four in the afternoon, and I slept till the next morning.

[reyd reid reed]

20. Dunno...

I'll let you know in May. From August through May, I usually average about 4 hours a night and I'm kinda loopy.

[BrotherBuzz]

23. I lasted about seventy-two hours once

Construction contracts installing store fixtures placed us against the wall. Penalties would have killed the the company. Starting in Sonoma, California, I worked fourteen hours finishing casework and loading truck, then drove non-stop to San Diego, California, for a twenty hour installation job, then back up to Orange county for another twenty hour install in another store. After forty hours I had proverbial shit for brains, but fear keep me going. At 72 hours the work was done, but ironically, I was to tired to sleep. When I finally did get to sleep it was a very restless sleep. I think it took almost two weeks to fully recover from the ordeal. Never again!