Thread: sleep deprivation study

Im a major insomniac ( for those who havent read my dream journal) and am pretty much always sleep deprived, i dont sleep so much as cat nap. I live on 3 or 4 short naps a day and have never been any different, have been the same since i can remember, only sleeping through the night when sedated with prescribed drugs or when ive passed out drunk. Had countless sleep studies and they are yet to find a reason for it. I gave up a bit trying to find out why, and just deal with it now. Im never really asleep and never really awake. When my naps fail me sleep deprivation takes me over, I feel nauseous, and cant concentrate, i become agitated and hot like i want to do something but i dont want to move.I feel like im at war with myself. The only way i can describe the feelings i get when im really deprived is like a really really bad hangover. It has affected a lot of aspects of my life, causes complications in relationships ( including the one im in now) and makes working difficult because by midday im ready to nap and obv cant. so overall.. in conclusion.. it fkin sucks!

Yes, it is possible to not sleep at all for 2 weeks. I haven't done it myself, but I know a guy who had to work on a big project, and stayed up for two weeks straight

I would prefer not to say anything else about him, mainly because he wouldn't exactly like the idea of being a guinea pig

All that I can say is that he started hearing voices, and he is now locked up in a mental institution...seriously!

/\
Now THAT is f-ed up!
EsC

I'm guessing he went on a coke/meth binge?

I saw this thing on the discovery channel or some channel like that a few months ago where a guy broke the world record by staying up for 11 days... Are you sure you stayed awake for two weeks without the help of any substances? I've heard of people staying up for 3 weeks on meth in extreme cases but they also lose all sense of reality.

I've been awake for 20 hours now (doing my own little experiment) and already I can sense my depth perception is getting worse. It actually hurts my eyes to look at the floor because it looks closer than it actually is. Weird this has never happened before, I've stayed up for three days before.

I never said that he didn't use any substances. I think it might be something like caffeine or something like that.

That might be a study in the name of science...but for gods sake! It's not healthy! Oh well, enjoy the trip anywayrather you than me

EsC

ive done a full weekend on speed like 3 years ago (used to do the odd drug or 2 back in school, but we all grow up ) felt the need to tell you that so you dont think im some kind of druggy lol!
anyway also because you dont eat on speed i think it made it alittle stranger, plus your on a substance... so i saw a few strange things from the corner of my eye, like a cat dashing, but there wasnt a cat etc. also everything that sorta hazey if you consentrated on it, like it was raining. anyway i eventually went to sleep and it was ace lol. speaking of sleep, im gonna go to bed

Originally Posted by [Alpha]-0mega-

My personal record was 4 days without any side-effects, just a slightly different feeling. (I have this tendency to basically ''feel awake'' after I manage to stay up till the regular time I wake up, and after that I don't go to sleep anymore.

There was a story about a man who didn't sleep for 33 years, I'll see if I can dig it up again lol.
Here it is:
http://www.thanhniennews.com/feature...0&newsid=12673

33 YEARS?? JESUS i feel sorry for him >_>

lol it's bullshit it's impossible.
That's why it's published in some obscure Indochinese newspaper.

Not on topic at all but eep brought up speed and not eating and I thought I'd throw it out there that I recently I read this forum with all these crazy housewives who take that Duromine stuff which is basically pharmacy grade speed, well not basically, it is.
Anyway these people were fuckin retarded I can't find the link right now but you shoulda seen em they were like, "Yeh I stayed up for three days and I never ate and eventually my bf had to remind me to eat and force me to, it sucked when I crashed though cos I slept for a day and then felt all anxious and depressed. It was worth it though because I looked SO good in my wedding photos!".

Stay clear of this shit kids!

Sorry for the mega off-topic rant.

Originally Posted by BeautifulDreamer

Okay, after leeping for 15-20 hours I had at least 15 VIVID as hell dreams, 7-10 being LDs. I made a method.

Me too...14-hour long sleep produces lots of vivid dreams.

the last time i stayed up 30hrs i just sat and stared off into the distance

5 days for me, day 2 felt sleepy, day 3 wide awake, day 4 my veins starting being kind of bulgy, blinking hurts like hell, simply breathing has to be done by thought it doesnt just happen anymore. Day 5 forget about moving unless your determined to do it, a simple short walk to the washroom feels like a 20 mile hike, blinking, breathing has to be done by thought or you end up staring for minutes on end, talking hurts. Looking into the mirror seems like a cheap video game, everything seems poorly animated. Then you start to loose all feeling. You loose all reactions of any kind. But it is quite a high like feeling. Life feels like your on an operation table and still awake. After going to the washroom you need a 10 minute rest like you just ran a mile.

Anything more then 3 days is just risky buisness. But if anyone wants to try it, one rule thats wise to follow is make sure you remember to breath and blink because it doesnt happen naturaly anymore, until you fall asleep and that I wouldnt guarentee. Not something anyone should try, I know I wont ever do that again. I can barly to 48 hours now a days.

Also dont try it unless you have 2 or 3 straight days you can dedicate to sleep. I passed out on thursday morning, and woke up saturday night.

*edit*
33 years! Thats an accomplishment.

about a year back when I was attending UC Berkeley over the summer for a program, i didn't sleep for about 4 nights straight and I did notice the effects, very much like magic mushrooms. For some reason everyone in my peripheral vision looked naked

I know this thread hasn't been active for a long time but I just wanted to say that I'm going to attempt another sleep deprivation run with a friend of mine. The goal is 72 hours and anything beyond that is completely optional for both of us. I'll be trying to document our SD run with video but I'm not sure how thats going to work out. If it turns out good, I'll post it, if it doesn't oh well.

The experiment will start July 3rd and will end whenever we fall asleep.

Wish us luck!

EDIT: Starting date was delayed 1 day. Starting date is now July 4th.

Funny that someone posted this. I just stayed up 2 days the other day to get my sleep schedule back on track for LD'ing. I was so fucked after only two days. I believe there's only a certain amount of times your body and brain can handle this.

The longest I ever stayed awake was 3 days, and got a massive hounding from my father-in-law for doing so. He left for work, and I was having massive outbursts of anger and frustration at the smallest things, all the smallest problems in the world became the biggest I've ever had, and I eventually had a fight with my mother, who told me to "Go to fucking bed!!"

I was laughing on my way to my bed, because (like being drunk) when you're tired, things get funnier, more frustrating, etc. So, when my face crashed on the pillow, I kept laughing. Then, out of nowhere, I started crying. I don't mean like OMFG IT WAS LIEK SO FUNNY <:'''D I mean I actually started bawling like a little girl, as if I was in agony. After about 5 seconds, I realized what I was doing and stopped, then just passed out. I can't remember if I even had a dream after that, letalone recall what happened in it.

WOW very strange. I'd forgotten about this topic I was going to start a thread about sleep deprivation until I got an e-mail saying a reply was posted in here lol So weird.

Anyway, does everyone experience the "shadow people"? Usually after around 2-3 days of not sleeping people seem to report shadow people in their peripheral vision who move with jolty movements and seem rather sinister.
I know I've experienced them on various occasions.

I can't recall seeing shadow people when I have sleep deprivation, but I do remember seeing a curled up dog TWICE during a violent laughing episode. I was laughing incredibly hard at a joke my friend made while we were having dinner, and saw a dog (possibly my old one) curled up on the tiles of the kitchen. I'd assume it was her, because she loved to lay on the cold tiles. I love it when I see things like this, it gives me comfort feeling as though things are never truly gone.

Has anyone ever experienced this?

And it's not really sleep deprivation... well not long term, but just not getting ENOUGH sleep... I mean like 3 hours and then having to get up and go to work. ... It's happened to me several times, and there's a good possibility I was drinking each time, but I'm not sure. Anyway, here it is...

Everything gets sort of stuttery.

I mean, like when you're playing a video game and the processor can't handle everything and smooth movement gets shot all to hell. My thinking gets all stuttery too. It's almost like the brain falls asleep for a few micro-seconds every 30 seconds or so. Weird as all hell. (in fact a lot like my avatar over there!)

Oh, and I just realized... it's also possible it could always be after plahying video games all night. Wonder if that has anything to do with it?

Well I've never had it but you could be micro dreaming for a few seconds. Since you said you played video games all night that could be the reason it's like that, since you dream usually about what you've been doing heaps.

Originally Posted by anti_nation

...... This thread is devoted to the strangeness of what happens when deprived of sleep. From my expeirience, its not very fun. Ive stayed awake for only 36 hours and i was starting to hear voices and sounds when Id'e fall into a half sleep trance. ive had these before even when i wasnt sleep deprived so im not sure if that has to do with sleep deprivation. this is a thread made to post expiriences and ideas on the subject so post away!

I stayed up for 3 days once (76 hours). Drank a lot of coffee and played a lot of Saint's Row. I didn't want to go to sleep and I found staying up quite easy. I was about 18 so my energy was probably not being used. I'm 21 now and I stayed up for a day about 2 weeks ago and I found it very hard to stay awake when it passed the 24 hour mark the next day.
Maybe this is due to when I was 18 the days I stayed up were in the Summer holidays so I wasn't busy, as with now, about two weeks ago, I seem to be extremely busy with University, family and my girlfriend, as well as a lot of traveling.

My experience of my 3 day sleepless binge involved an intense hallucination at the point I said to myself that I will now go to sleep.

As I went to bed, about 11a.m in the Summer, I lay my head on the pillow and found my brain fighting over the sound of a bird outside (I like to sleep with my window open), one half of my brain was telling me it was the sound of a bird, while the other half was telling me it wasn't. This absolutely confused the hell out of me as one side of my brain told me to look at the bottom of my bed.
As I opened my eyes and looked down at the foot of my bed I was in shock at what I saw.
I saw a giant black bird with a long yellow beak flapping it's wings franticly and squawking in the same tone as the bird outside.

This, at the time, looked unbelievably realistic, no bends in it's nature or missing parts, and when looking at him/ her it didn't blur or disappear. This stunned me as I have never witnessed such a vivid and realistic hallucination. I slammed my head, into what I thought was the pillow (trying to block it out and actually finally go to sleep) but smacked my head on my heater's knob, which brought me back to reality. The bird disappeared and I was able to finally go to sleep.

This might sound over the top and unreal, but I did stay up for 3 days straight and drank A LOT of coffee, so it is no wonder my mind started to play tricks on me, and as I read in a book of mine (not sure what it is called, but I will find out), it's approximately 3 days without sleep that the mind starts to play intense tricks on you.

Well that was my experience with no sleep. Never again!

Heh, same thing has happened to me. I stayed up for 3 days once. Pretty sure I drank coffee too (even though I hate it) and smoked a bit of weed on the 2nd day.
I didn't feel unwell, but was hallucinating by the 3rd day.

Then a few weeks ago I stayed up for 2 days playing Assassin's Creed 2. I felt SO sick it's not funny. I can't even look at that game anymore without feeling slightly sick. All the other times I haven't slept after that first time with 3 days, I feel sick, I eat and eat but don't seem to get full.

And yeah I think coffee, being a stimulant, get's rid of the sickness feeling a bit and wakes you up, but makes the hallucinations more prominent. You hear it a lot if you read stories of people taking meth and staying up for weeks. I assume it's the same with caffeine only more mild.

Be sure to post that book title, would be interesting.

Alright guys, over here it's 8 in the morning on a Saturday, and I've been awake since thursday afternoon. No idea how long/short that is, and I don't have the energy to count up the figures.

It's been quite a long time since I've stayed up for this long on purpose. Last time was when I had to fix my sleeping patterns in a rush, using red bulls to get me through the day. Since the thursday, I think I've had 3 red bulls, and have been eating quite healthy. Salads, quality meat, etc. I eat healthier now than I used too, and I never, ever noticed before, while in my "No time to sleep until I get to school" persona, did I ever see that my skin had actually changed colour during sleep deprivation. I'm not talking getting darkened eyebags. You know when Jean Grey turned into Pheonix in X-men 3, and her skin turned a sickly brownish-green? Well that's what I've got now, and I've never noticed it before in times like this.

The feeling of the weight UNDER your eyes rings a bell as well. When I get sleep deprived, I don't get pissed off because I'm tired, my eyes are literally stinging like shit the entire day if I don't get enough sleep, and I tend to get pretty irritating heart burn. To those looking to stay up for ages, I reccomend finding something on the COMPUTER that'll keep you entertained. I was playing Spyro on the old PS1 20 minutes ago, and started to click in and out with my eyes still open. It's even worse when you try to fap <.< and fapping helps me stay away, provided I do it more than ten times a day.

Christ, I'm rambling now. Alright, with nothing left to do (actually, i've got a shit ton of stuff to amuse myself with) I'm going to try and have a WILD. If I wake up afterwards, I'll let you guys know

Originally Posted by Remorseless

It's even worse when you try to fap <.< and fapping helps me stay away, provided I do it more than ten times a day.

AAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
LOL yeh but anyway um.... Yeah I've noticed that skin colour thing too! I've actually got a tan sort of thing going on now coz it's summer, but when I didn't sleep last week for 2 days or something my skin was grey. Maybe sickly brownish green describes it better.
I think it had to do with the body moving blood going to your organs etc. to keep them alive and taking it from your skin. I don't know why the body does this, but I think it has something to do with conserving energy.

Well, now that I'm recovered a few days later, gonna go for a walk and watch the sun come up. It's the holidays, and I love doing that sort of thing.

I tried to go into a WILD by laying on my back, and made it about 5-10 minutes in (no sense of time, I was that fucked) I think. I was EXTREMELY tempted to just roll over and go into a coma, but hung in there. Then, this OVERPOWERING stretch came over me. All my muscles tensed up and shook on the spot and I let out the biggest, most painful sounding yawn.

"GYUUUUAAAARRRRGGHHHHH....deh."

Rolled over, and carked it. I can't remember ANYTHING after that, and was asleep for about 15 hours.