Sleep Deprivation: How long have YOU stayed up? (1 Viewer)

[Mike boettner]

i stay awake for 72 hours + one weekend every month. thank you navy. i have to stand watch once a month over the weekend and its just plane old inconvenient to sleep.

btw sleep is a waste of time, but damn does it feel good!!!!

 

[Scott Leopold]

I worked nights (7pm-7am) for 5 years, and that really messes with your sleep patterns. The last couple years, I was suffering from regular bouts of insomnia. These would normally coincide with long stretches of overtime, which made it that much more difficult. These also led to my two worst bouts of sleep deprivation.

The first one took place a few years back. My wife needed to have her wisdom teeth pulled, and she was scheduled to have it done on Tuesday morning. My regular schedule was Saturday through Monday, but I worked OT on Friday. I woke up at 6am Friday morning, and by the time I got home Tuesday morning, I'd been away for 98 hours. I had gotten literally no sleep during my work week. My wife's appointment was at 9am. This was also the first week of Summer vacation, so our son was with us. The procedure and recovery took about an hour (we never went back to that dentist after the terrible conditions and "speedy" service), and afterwards we decided to go to the video store and Meijer to get groceries (soup and other stuff for her) and her prescription. When we finally got home, I did my best to take care of her. I made soup, put on the videos (Watership Down & Tommy), and tried to make sure she felt okay. All the while, I was running a fever from some bug that had taken over in my weakened state. Around 2pm, I finally passed out on the bed, approximately 104 hours since I had last slept. My wife tried to wake me up for about an hour, but I wouldn't respond. Aside from the coma-like sleep, I didn't experience any other, odd side-effects.

The Christmas before that was even worse. I was scheduled to work either Thurs-Monday or Friday-Tuesday; I can't remember which. Luckily for me, my first real bout of insomnia hit that weekend. I didn't sleep the entire work week (again waking up at 6am my first day of work), and when I finally got home, my wife informed me that we had to get Christmas cards out that day! I explained my situation (I had been awake for 122 hours and desperately needed sleep) but she insisted. She told me to run out and buy more cards and stamps while she worked on the cards. She would have done this on her own, but after sleeping 12 hours the night before, she was too tired!! I ran to the store, then hit the post office on the way back. When I got home, she had yet to do a single card! I would have napped while she finished, but I felt I wouldn't wake up if I did. I worked on the envelopes while she did the actual cards. We finally finished, and I asked her to run them to the post office. Again, she refused, citing her exhaustion. While driving to the post office, a few strange things happened. The street lights were bending and swaying in the breeze; odd lights were bouncing around the road; the radio sounded more like gibberish than the talk-show host I normally listen to; finally, the road would intermittently take on a wavy appearance. I got to the post office and had to stand in line for 45 minutes just to drop off the cards. I suppose it would have made more sense to use the mail drop, but it never crossed my mind at the time. When I got home, my wife explained that she wanted me to go get our son from school, and that afterwards we could run to the store. I was so exhausted (both physically, and now mentally from dealing with the stress of the halucinations) that all the fight had gone out of me. I collapsed on the couch and told her okay. I know we talked for a while, but it just kept getting hazier and more frustrating. When she told me it was almost time to head to school, I nearly snapped. I explained to her what I was going through, and my dire need for sleep. Somehow, our marriage survived her telling me one last time how tired she was. She decided that sleep was probably in my best interest, so she went to get our son while I went to bed. It was around 2:30 when I finally hit the pillow, and I had been up for over 128 hours. I slept for 6 or 7 hours, woke up for an hour, then slept for nearly 12 more. I ended up missing the entire next week at work, and spent the best part of 10 days sleeping. On top of that, I had halucinations off and on for 3 or 4 days.

 

[Joseph Howard]

Scott!!!

Holy Crap!! I donate 1 hour of my sleep tonight to

you. Jeez! Ok, maybe I'll only dedicate one hour, but...

dude get some sleep!!

--Joe

 

[John Besse]

Damn, I'm lucky to make it 5 hours without a nap!

 

[Allan Petersen]

About two years ago, I spent a week of my summer vacation with four of my friends. The weather was terrible, so we set up a LAN in the house and played computer games, watched DVDs, drank lots of wine and beer and generally had a great time.
At the end of the week I got a call from my parents; I was asked to pick up my mother who had hurt herself while on vacation, though not enough to need acute medical assistance. In essence, I had to drive 200 miles across country to pick her up and bring her back home (we live in the same town).
Our party was breaking up anyway, so I decided that I would drive a couple of the guys home first. That would add about 50 miles to the trip. I had slept for about 3 hours the previous night and that had been consistent for the entire week.
When I finally picked my mother up I was pretty bushed. She was in no state to drive, however, so I had to drive home as well. Things were going fine for a while but about 40 miles from home it got pretty weird. At this time it was completely dark and my mother was fast asleep. I didn't really notice just how wasted I really was, but I suddenly saw people on the highway! The road started to take really weird turns and rose or fell very suddenly. I must have been falling asleep but these hallucinations forced me awake for a short period of time. After a while it started over again.
I don't really really remember how I got home, but I think that the only reason I survived the trip was the fact that it was a two-lane highway which was practically deserted due to the fact that it was two o'clock in the morning.
This is the most reckless thing that I have ever done. I do not drive while intoxicated and I am generally a safe driver.
This is one experience that I never want to repeat!

 

[Scott Leopold]

While this isn't the same as going with ABSOLUTELY NO sleep over an extended period of time, I think I actually suffered more than my two experiences mentioned above when I first started dating my wife. I was in school and working full time. She was in school, and worked nearly full time. The way our schedules worked out, the earliest we could see each other was 3am each night/morning. We'd spend 2-3 hours together, then I'd go home and have to be awake no later than 7am to get to school on time. Over a 6 month period (beginning of October through the end of March), I didn't get more than 90 minutes of sleep per night, and usually got well under 60 minutes (15 minutes was often my norm). I was young, stupid and in love, so I was able to keep myself going on the anticipation of seeing my then girlfriend each night, and massive amounts of caffeine. I started the day with Pepsi, Coke, or whatever caffeinated product was in my parents' fridge. I would keep a steady stream of caffeine coming in through class, then would run home to get ready for work. I'd guzzle a pop or two at home, then pick up a large iced tea on the way to work, and use that to wash down 2-12 No-Dozes (started as 2, worked up to 12). At work, I'd drink 3-4 pitchers of tea or pots of coffee per shift (or a mix of both). Afterwards, I'd either go out drinking (although this ended in January of that year) until she got out of work, or go to the gym. Toward the end of this, I had to work the morning shift (I think school had just ended--either that, or I skipped for the OT). I got to work at 10am, and by the time we opened at 11, I had finished off 3 pots of coffee. My breakfast that morning had been two Arizona Iced Teas, and all the No-Doze that was left in my car. After the coffee, I switched to tea. By noon, I had finished 3 pitchers of tea. I was so wired that the lady I was working with couldn't stand it. I was constantly moving and making her look bad. She talked the owner into sending me home around 1pm. I had to work that night, so I went home thinking I could nap. Instead, I laid in my bed stiff as a board, with my hands and feet shaking. On the way back to work, I stopped for some more tea and No-Doze. By the end of the night I had finished the box, and more tea than I can remember. My boss told me at the end of the night that I really needed to quit pushing myself so hard. I figured it was all worth it until a couple days later when my body basically gave out. I was so sick I missed 10 days of work, and my entire Spring Break. I finally explained to my girlfriend how little sleep I'd been getting, and mainly out of guilt she quit her job. While I don't think that was the sickest I've ever been, it definitely ranks in the top 5.

 

[Tim Maynard]

I think the longest for me was a couple of years ago when I took a 2000-odd kilometer car journey away from home.
I got up around 5am Monday, drove till around 8pm, took a three hour ferry trip from 9pm to midnight, then carried on driving till around 6am Tuesday, when we pulled off the road for a 20 or 30 minute power nap, then continued driving till we arrived at our destination around 11am Tuesday. We slept for 3 or 4 hours until the early afternoon.
Overall, we were up for about 29 or 30 hours.
We did pretty much the same thing about two weeks later on the return trip.

 

[Brett Hancock]

The longest I have ever stayed up is 3 days. My friends and I used to have what we call a "blood-fest" where all we wood do is play Resident Evil and watch horror movies. That and a lot of jolt equaled me staying up for 3 days straight. Then I slept for a straight day. I love the summer

 

[Max Leung]

I believe my record was 36 hours. Or maybe it was 38? Whatever.
Anyhow, for those of you who have trouble getting to sleep:
http://www.bottomquark.com/article.php?sid=2343

 

[Eve T]

Well, I used to do some ummm narcotics that kept me up for quite some time (days on end is more like it.) I sometimes miss the energy I had and of course the high, but what I don't miss is : the fact that I was always cranky, the fact that I lost weight, and lastly ...the fact that my body could no longer handle the drugs/lack of sleep and I had a heart attack at the age of 24. :frowning: I'm glad those days are over. Incidentaly I have been having a hard time getting to sleep lately and find myself awake until 5 am each morning even though I get up around 7 or 8 most mornings.Good thing there are plenty of post to read on HTF
Eve