I went 72+ hours without sleeping in the days before and around the time my mother died. I was so stressed out that I didn’t feel tired at all during this time (and I didn’t have a decent night’s sleep until two nights afterward), but after about 48 hours I started having auditory hallucinations.
We had music playing in my mom’s room, and even when I was well out of earshot of the stereo, I could still hear music. I knew it was coming from my own head because it seemed like the same few notes were repeating endlessly (not a real tune).
On the night she died (~72 hours without sleep), I had visual hallucinations of colored lights in the dark room.
The only reason I kept functioning after that long without sleep was the stress. In college, I could only stay up without sleeping for one night and I was a brain-dead zombie the next day.
I did this involuntarily after my son was born. My wife was in fairly bad shape, and we were having the rainiest Spring in the region’s history. Our basement was horribly flooded, and I had to take care of kiddo the rest of the time. The experience was not pleasant. It was the added stress that made it really nasty, but the hallucinations were a bad experience. I decided I had to go home and sleep when I was at the pharmacy (getting something for the baby) and the mortar lines on the brick wall of the building started wavering and crossing over each other.
I had a very unstable acquaintance try this. He ended up having a major psychotic break. He was convinced that angels were appearing to him, telling him he was going to hell for masturbating.
So he went to his neighbor’s wood shop and used a band saw to cut his arm off above the elbow, I suppose as an act of atonement.
He probably doesn’t want to admit that he fell asleep. Even if he stayed awake, he didn’t post again, so no one will believe him. He really should come back. We’ll laugh at him and remind him of his failure at every opportunity, so it’s our loss if he doesn’t return.
I’m glad he stopped. For a while it looked like he was going to give us hourly updates of incoherent gibberish. I’ve been up for 36 hours on hundreds of occasions and I was doing much better than this fellow at 25. There are much better ways to catch a buzz than to stay awake for 60 hours. And you sleep off the effects in less time.
I’ve had several bouts of insomnia over the years. My all time record, drug unassisted, was 70 hours. In the end I realised I was actually tired enough to sleep but was forcing myself to make it through to 3 days just so I could say I had done it. When I admitted this to my housemates they dragged me to my bad and ordered me to sleep - I was out in a flash.
I never, ever in any of my periods got any sort of hallucination (at least I don’t remember it …). I feel like I’ve been ripped off.
I had a 3-5 AM radio show for a semester in college, so once a week I had to stay up all night and then go to classes the next day. It was a lot like the other posters here have described. After 24 hours, I would lose nearly all cognitive ability - I couldn’t read a newspaper article - and I would go through a giddy, euphoric phase for a few hours, then I would get really depressed. Mostly, it made me feel like crap. Bad memories would flood my mind and I couldn’t get rid of them. Even after I took a long nap the next afternoon I would still feel “off.”
I wouldn’t stay up for sixty hours as an experiment, I don’t think it’s very healthy. I recently read about a radio station DJ who stayed up for ten days straightas a publicity stunt, and he was never the same afterwards. The article suggests it played a part in the deterioration of his marriage.
I think I did about 63 one time. I have it written down on a “memento” out in the garage.
Left home late at night (but woke up early that day), drove all night, got to the destination in daylight, started havin’ fun (drinkin’ beer, nothing else) and it just kept rolling for a day or so…
Actually found it hard to get to sleep when it was clearly time. Had to slam a couple beers in the dark just to “chill out”.
Drove across the country (Cal/Nv border to Upstate NY) and back in about 6 days once. Never awake for more than 30 hours, but this was a nightmare. A suicide attempt by sleep depravation. Snowed most of the way out and about a third of the way back. Looking back, I’m a little suprised I survived it.
meh… I would really like him to come back and tell us what happened that made him keel over and hug his pillow. I figured that when he decided to do this marathon sleep-not-athon he was already sleep deprived and not thinking straight.
Hey dude it doesn’t matter if you embarrassed or even " meh what I was I thinking about" the teeming millions want to know.
Hey, I made it to 36 and passed out.
Ironically, it only took me 12 to recover. I was up and about and doing stuff, as if nothing happened…and really, nothing did.
I may or may not be doing this again. It wasn’t anything special…
I could make a lifestyle of being awake 36 hours and sleeping 12. It keeps the ratio of 1:3.
Uh, kinda. Let us know how it turns out. Did you do this without caffeine? I did a 28 hour shift at work without caffeine, and I found that I was totally fine as long as I had a task. The moment I had no task, or a task that was merely “Stand here and hold this,” I was unable to keep my eyes open, and only barely awake.
I’m not sure why someone would WANT to do 36/12; the quality of awakeness during the last part of the 36 would seem so compromised as to be wasted.
I did 6 on-6 off workdays on a boat for two months straight, with a break once in a while during offloads. It was…amazingly functional. I was quite surprised. Only took a few days to get used to it. Not sure what benefit that would have in real life, though, except to know that it is plausible, should I need to.
im up 52 hours & counting now lol, perfectly fine. Whats funny is that i forgot that i didnt eat breakfast or lunch in th 2nd 24 hour time period so at diner i was up for over 24 hours & had no food or drink till then
loll i guess but this is oddly normal for me. Any adverse affects while ive been up were short lived & im not going past 72 because it “could” be a serious danger to your health staying up for over 3 days straight