To return to the original question, "How long can humans stay awake?" the ultimate answer remains unclear. Despite the rat studies in Chicago, I am unaware of any reports that sleep deprivation per se has killed any human (excluding accidents and so forth). Indeed, the U.S. Department of Defense has offered research funding for the goal of sustaining a fully awake, fully functional "24/7" soldier, sailor, or airman. Future warriors will face intense, around-the-clock fighting for weeks at a time. Will bioengineering eventually produce genetically-cloned soldiers and citizens with a variant of Morvan¿s syndrome who need no sleep but remain effective and happy? I hope not. A good night¿s sleep is one of life¿s blessings. As Coleridge wrote years ago, "Oh sleep! It is a gentle thing, beloved from pole to pole," and Wilse Webb, a prominent sleep researcher, more recently called sleep the gentle tyrant: It can be delayed but not defeated.
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16 Comments
Add CommentIs there any quantitative measure of the extent of sleep deprivation? I.e. what happens during sleep to restore the organism's abilities? Is something synthesized? Is a specific substance removed--a detoxification? Basically, can anyone tell a rested individual from one in need of sleep by any biochemical metric?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there any evidence to suggest that individuals who develop insomnia at a very young age (4-6 yrs.) are more prone to suffering insomnia in its severest form as they enter their middle years (40s)?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1 more thing... this isnt the first time i've been restless.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAfter staying awake for 48-72 hours, and lay down, just when im about to fall into a sleep i hear a shock, bringing me to open my eyes in a split second. and at the same time i hear this i see little statics of electricity, or little flashes... this has happened to me about 4 times. (No it wasn't a dream, also my eyes were closed when i seen the bright static) scared the Sh** out of me.
i want to know how you 'er doind today .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBad, Bad, Bad, extended sleep deprivation causes permanet brain damage. I spent 4 years in the southeast asian war and 3 years as a long haul trucker. Many periods of sleep deprivation lead to hallucinations, truckers call it "seeing the black dog" once started it never goes away.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFor the smart asses, I never used drugs not even coffee.
Don't deliberatlly go more then 72hours without full rest sleep.
bcmcneil@shaw.ca
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn 1988 I stayed awake for 17 days and my doctor eventually put me in the hospital and drugged me to sleep. When I awakened 7 hours later, the nurse said she was so glad I woke up as she thought she had killed me as she had never given so many drugs (i.v. and oral) to put someone to sleep. I was in a state of deep, deep, stress at the time. Bonnie McNeil
In 1988, I went 17 days without sleep and was finally hospitalized and given massive amount of medication, oral and i.v. and 4 hours plus later I finally fell asleep for 7 hours.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe nurse said she was so glad when I woke up as she thought she had killed me and said they had never given anyone so much medication to put them to sleep. I was under a tremendous amount of stress at the time and had very high
cortisol levels. Bonnie McNeil bcmcneil@shaw.ca
I do not know how to get the Adobe Flash Player to work that wants to add on to your articles. I am confused. I have tried
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismany different ways, but no luck.
Windows Vista
bcmneil@shaw.ca
I receive Sciam. articles by e mail
I remained awake and hypervigilant [oops] for 14 days before a friend convinced me to go to the emergency room where it was discovered that I had abnormal brain-wave patterns. During the EEG I had a grand maul seizure. Like KidRythym I saw tiny flashes of light randomly moving in the air. I told my friend that I could see molecules.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI was 18 and being victimized by a family member and about 5 or 6 of their friends. Although the victimization did not result in any physical injury, the emotional damage was immense and I felt deeply betrayed.
About 5 years before this period I had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia marked by paranoia, complete breaks from reality, erratic thinking and behavior and dilusions and auditory/visual halucinations. I believe a family tragedy in which I lost a parent to a violent death was the cause of onset: it was my heart that was broken, and my mind that was responding to the tragedy. It took me about 18 years to fully process the grief and sense of loss.
When I finally let go of the sense of loss and profound grief, I experienced several major breakthroughs in perception simultaneously. Like a flood gate the realizations literally rocked my world and each one brought a moment of vertigo, the molecule lights would appear for some days and I would experience manic episodes in which I had to be drugged in order to sleep and avoid psychotic breaks. Although I would sleep for about 4 to 6 hours, I never felt drugged when I woke up - just rested and ready to go again.
Eventually the manic episodes subsided, although I will still experience them periodically. Now I'm kept at therapuetic doses wether I need them or not. Yup - fourteen days without sleep under extreme duress or distress without a break from reality ... just those molecule sized lights dancing before my eyes .
Is it possible that those lights were signals telling me that my brain wave patterns were abnormal, or could the abnormalities have been a response to the lights themselves?
Does this article concider people in comas? Does being in a coma cout as being asleep?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI dont quite remember where or when i read it but i once read about people who were kept as prisoners and were whipped when they started to fall asleep. I dont quite remember if they were being interogated or just being tortured by the prision guards... but i digress. The point is that it was said that when those people were deprived of sleep for too long they began to become cold and when the guards tried to warm them up, (hypocritical huh?), they contiued to remain cold and would just, die. It most likely does not mean anything though and is not a very reliable source of information since they were most likely deprived of food, water, and were treated extemely poorly. Even so it said that those people were awake for many weeks and i find it kind of strange that they did not die before that if they were deprived of thier necessities of life.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisyou are not alone. It is possible that your brain is so slow that is possible to communicate with spirits(if real) and that you are being asked for help from the dead. That would be awesome! I wish I could be that asleepy!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisps: longest time I've been awake is 41 hours, and it was broken by a microsleep
what u were seeing was a static discharge from ur brain commonly asociated with sleep deprevation it is ur brain pretty much turn of the main braker to motar functions for u to sleep but in the case of deprevation u notice and and u scare ur self awake same principal as when u goto sleep and wake up 3 hours later feeling like its been about 5 seconds
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi just need to tell you y tht happend it happend because after 3 days without sleep you start to hausinate hope this helps before it is to late because you could die without sleep see a doctor they will no wat to do aso message me for more tips on this plzzz do see a doctor
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDoes anyone else see a problem with engineering the "24/7 soldier"?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHello,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe white light's myght be photopsia, I have it myself as well when I'm deprived of sleep. I's a signal from the retina toi the brain.