# What is the longest you've gone without sleep?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [October 31, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398 "2008-10-31T08:11:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/1 "2008-10-31T08:11:08Z")
No mini-naps, nothing. Being fully awake.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Credible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Credible)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/2 "2008-10-31T12:22:11Z")
I’d say it’s been around 24 hours. That amount of time is usually followed by about 14 hours asleep.
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### Author:  [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/3 "2008-10-31T12:24:04Z")
My personal record is 4 1/2 days. At which point everything I knew to be black, was actually blue. Time to sleep now…
I love abusing my health.😃
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### Author:  [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/4 "2008-10-31T12:24:16Z")
I had a lot of consecutive holidays and nothing to do, so I went without sleep for around 48 hours. It was horrible. Took me a week to recover.
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### Author:  [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/5 "2008-10-31T12:32:24Z")
Fully awake is probably around 36 hours and suffering. I did spend a full week with about 8 hours of sleep total, in mini naps.
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### Author:  [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/6 "2008-10-31T12:44:31Z")
In veterinary school I pulled 48 hour shifts commonly. Since then, it is pretty common for me to go 24 hours without sleep. In fact, I kinda enjoy it.
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### Author:  [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/7 "2008-10-31T12:49:38Z")
> [@vetbridge](#):
>
> Since then, it is pretty common for me to go 24 hours without sleep. In fact, I kinda enjoy it.
Exactly…
I just can’t force myself to get onto a normal sleep cycle now. Not because I can’t, but because I don’t want to.
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### Author:  [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/8 "2008-10-31T13:21:47Z")
Three days for me. After a certain point the hallucinations were pretty amusing!
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### Author:  [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/9 "2008-10-31T13:31:03Z")
About 33 1/2 hours, on March 27-28 of this year. Woke up at 5:45 AM on the 27th, went through my day, spent the evening and night finishing my Honors thesis, went to rehearsal at 11 the next morning (the notes kept moving!), ran around campus getting copies of the thing to the people on the panel for my oral exam, finally went to bed around 3:15 PM on the 28th. It was the first time I’d ever pulled an all-nighter for school, and I didn’t enjoy it very much.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/10 "2008-10-31T13:42:25Z")
Something around 40 hours (I got it written down somewhere). That was kinda fun, lots of partying.
I drove across the country and back in 4 1/2 days, snowstorms and rain most of both ways, not sure what the longest stretch awake was. Not fun at all. More like a suicide attempt.
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### Author:  [@KRC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KRC)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/11 "2008-10-31T14:00:22Z")
When I was a kid, after reading the nightmarish account of Led Zeppelin’s 1977 tour, I was afraid to sleep and I remained awake for 48 hours straight before I keeled. When I woke up a short time later I had a bit of identity confusion and thought I was 6 different people.
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### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/12 "2008-10-31T14:05:25Z")
12 days. Seriously - there was no time that I felt myself drowse or doze or anything else. I was having a bad reaction to Topomax, which the doctor prescribed for my migraines. Even taking Ambien did nothing. And the doctor kept saying “just keep it up, hopefully your body will adjust”. It didn’t. Finally I went off the Topomax and after another day or two was finally able to sleep. It was scary, I knew I wasn’t safe to drive.
StG
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### Author:  [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/13 "2008-10-31T14:26:24Z")
> [@StGermain](#):
>
> 12 days. Seriously - there was no time that I felt myself drowse or doze or anything else. I was having a bad reaction to Topomax, which the doctor prescribed for my migraines. Even taking Ambien did nothing. And the doctor kept saying “just keep it up, hopefully your body will adjust”. It didn’t. Finally I went off the Topomax and after another day or two was finally able to sleep. It was scary, I knew I wasn’t safe to drive.
>
> StG
12 days… PLEASE describe the hallucinations…
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/14 "2008-10-31T14:30:49Z")
For me, 46 hours. It was while I was in college, and there just wasn’t a good time to sleep. It was right before the Thanksgiving holidays, and I had papers due, so I stayed up and wrote ‘em. Then, I had to pack and fly home, then ride for an hour and a half from the airport to my parents’ house. And of course stay up and visit for a bit, then finally get some sleep. As I recall, I slept for about 12 hours, and woke up feeling fine. I never hallucinated, but I did feel “fuzzy” for a bit.
It’s really weird, though, to see two consecutive sunrises without sleeping in between.
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### Author:  [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/15 "2008-10-31T14:33:39Z")
A little over 3 days studying straight for my senior year in college. I was hallucinating when I took some of them but aced them all. I even got the highest score ever recorded on my graduate level psychopharmacology exam (perfect score + all extra credit). I even went out drinking after I was done. I finally decided enough was enough and went to bed in my girlfriends bed while she stayed out.
At some point, the Vietnam war broke out again (at least to me) and I escaped and dug a foxhole with my hands that is all I remember. I apparently covered myself in dirt and mud as camo and woke up the next morning about 5 miles away on someone’s porch. I had to find out where I was but I wasn’t in any shape to converse with strangers so I just wandered around until I found a familiar landmark. I made it back but everyone was out looking for me including the police. It looked like the Vietcong got scared and left because there weren’t anymore around.
Do not try this at home.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/16 "2008-10-31T14:41:03Z")
Doble empalmada, being 16yo and during my town’s fiestas. “Empalmada” is to stay awake all night - it would be about 54 hours, as when I finally did go to sleep it was siesta time (and then for a nap that lasted about half an hour).
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### Author:  [@Shecky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shecky)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/17 "2008-10-31T15:08:10Z")
about 5 days. The weird thing is that I still wasn’t tired, but I realized that I needed to go to bed only when I was ordering sushi at 8 am.
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### Author:  [@EpicNonsense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EpicNonsense)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/18 "2008-10-31T15:18:26Z")
> [@Shecky](#):
>
> about 5 days. The weird thing is that I still wasn’t tired, but I realized that I needed to go to bed only when I was ordering sushi at 8 am.
Wasn’t tired either, strangely, but once the whole black\>blue vision thing kicked in I kind of freaked and jumped in a cab. It probably wasn’t that serious, maybe I was just delusional. I still would like a scientific explanation for the whole vision trip.
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### Author:  [@TroubleAgain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroubleAgain)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/19 "2008-10-31T15:34:19Z")
About 36 hours.
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### Author:  [@New\_Beginning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/New_Beginning)
#### Post date: [October 31, 2008, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-longest-youve-gone-without-sleep/470398/20 "2008-10-31T15:50:00Z")
I worked on the game Rainbow Six Vegas which is a first person shooter with a lot of hiding behind corners and peaking out to shoot terrorists and whatnot.
During the final stretch of trying to ship the game, I was awake and working for about 60 hours straight. At one point I walked home to take a shower before walking back to work. On the walk I twice hallucinated that someone was peaking out from behind a building and ready to shoot me. I had to check both spots to convince myself that it really had just been a hallucination.
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