What's the longest you've ever been awake?

[mcgaffer]

Ok, i work nights and i like my sleep. So if iv got just one day off between shifts i stay awake for that day so i won't waste the day off by sleeping it away. Subsequently i regularly go about 40 hours without sleep once or twice a week. The longest iv gone was just over 70 hours, and i actually hallucinated. I am a security guard and round about the 60th hour i was looking out of the lodge and could see little goblins running up and down the yard. Iv never gone past roughly 40 hours without sleep again. So what's the longest you've gone without sleep and did anything happen?

[Red Jack]

four days.

[Christopher Cross Is God]

4 or 5 days, happened three different times, I think. It was back when I used to suffer from severe bouts of insomnia......Don't remember any hallucinations, simply felt like a living zombie. Well, I did see spots at times, as if someone was pressing against my eyeballs.

I'm pretty sure there was another thread similar to this, perhaps around a year ago......And when I posted on that thread, I wasn't medicated, so I was probably more thorough with my recollections on the subject.

[mcgaffer]

I can appreciate how medication messes up your mind. I severely broke my hand about a year ago, on a punch bag machine. Then played a game of rugby about 6 months ago just after id had all the casts and bandaging off. I broke everything that had just healed inside 15 mins. Iv only just come off the painkillers about three weeks ago, and they used to mess my head up something fierce.

[Pink Bat Maxine]

probably only 30 hours or so.

I needs my sleep!

[Flying Saucers Over Oz]

Twenty minutes.

It was Hell.

Night-night...

[Christopher Cross Is God]

I can appreciate how medication messes up your mind. I severely broke my hand about a year ago, on a punch bag machine. Then played a game of rugby about 6 months ago just after id had all the casts and bandaging off. I broke everything that had just healed inside 15 mins. Iv only just come off the painkillers about three weeks ago, and they used to mess my head up something fierce.

Ugh, that sounds bad.

I've been on painkillers, due to a bad neck, for a few months now......Then I had surgery (unrelated to my neck injury) a couple weeks ago. They knocked me out for the procedure and filled me up with morphine for 24hrs afterwards.

It's probably just me, but I don't know how people become heroin addicts......After waking up from surgery, I was vomiting almost the entire 24hrs they had morphine running into me.

And prescribed painkillers (I think both the neck-related & surgery-related painkillers have been hydrocodone) are essentially an opiate, and I don't enjoy being on them. I hear they make most people "happy", they just make me feel spaced out in a weird, but not enjoyable, way......Sometimes they help me sleep, but the worst thing to happen (And it's often) is when they space me out so damn much I can't fall asleep, and I lay there for hours feeling like I'm on a rough boat ride.

[Paul McEnery]

Did seven days once. Got what I wanted out of it. Don't feel the need to do it again, really.

Go 48 hours at least once a fortnight, though. Perks me up no end.

[mcgaffer]

I can't remember exactly what my medication was because i was taking different ones all the time. Sometimes i was taking antibiotics so i could'nt take certain other pills, sometimes i was taking anti-inflammotories so i could'nt take certain other pills at the same time. I just remember the painkillers making my head go fuzzy and when i was taking them with anti-inflammatories my head used to split like the worst migraine possible.

[section 8]

Ok, i work nights and i like my sleep. So if iv got just one day off between shifts i stay awake for that day so i won't waste the day off by sleeping it away. Subsequently i regularly go about 40 hours without sleep once or twice a week. The longest iv gone was just over 70 hours, and i actually hallucinated. I am a security guard and round about the 60th hour i was looking out of the lodge and could see little goblins running up and down the yard. Iv never gone past roughly 40 hours without sleep again. So what's the longest you've gone without sleep and did anything happen?

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!

[mcgaffer]

I think iv heard section 8 on one of those long cold nights without sleep before.

[section 8]

Sorry I am a notorious insomniac who used to take Amphetamines

I couldn't tell you the record but I KNOW I've gone six or seven says in the past.

[Ben Morgan]

Almost 40 hours, I guess.

[PatrickG]

Sunday at 9AM roughly until Friday morning at 2AM is what...?

113 hours?

Lost consciousness a few times for a few minutes but never out for more than five or six minutes at a time so no REM.

I had chest pains and trouble breathing by the end. That was a couple of months ago. I remember it hit me a lot harder than sleep deprivation ever had before. Chest still seems more tender since then. Almost feels like my left ribrage is bruised.

[Infra-Man]

I've hit the 36-40 hour wall a few times and just had to crash. My brain starts nagging me at that point and I lose all ability to concentrate.

[Solaris]

IIRC, more than once I've stayed up 36 hrs---a day, a night, another day---but by the time I got to about midnight of the next night, I just couldn't stay awake any longer.

And the older I get, the harder it is to stay up that long, and the more it wipes me out.

[mgs]

yeah, like some of the others, almost a week for me.

in tense situations, it's no as noticeable as just sitting at home and working. but after it's all over, some of your body is a little sore and your mind loses it's sharpness after some time, but with training, you learn how you react to it all.

Also, constant activity and some things like caffine and sugar tabs help.

[section 8]

yeah, like some of the others, almost a week for me.

in tense situations, it's no as noticeable as just sitting at home and working. but after it's all over, some of your body is a little sore and your mind loses it's sharpness after some time, but with training, you learn how you react to it all.

Also, constant activity and some things like caffine and sugar tabs help.


I rebuilt and repainted my Ibanez while I was on one of my sleepless adventures,

But I remember feeling dizzy and almost drunk before finally crashing for a good 14 hours.

[Toreador]

First time was about 50 hours. Woke up early Friday morning, did the usual things and that night went to an all-night drive-in watching kung fu movies. Came back home around dawn and then later helped my aunt move into her apartment. Watched movies and read a book all night long and finally ended up going to sleep because I was bored.

After that had a couple of times lasting 36-40 hours playing Risk all night and crashing around midnight the next day.

[Eliseu Gouveia]

36 hours.

35 and a half, more likely...

[Weetomuncher]

I sometimes have trouble getting to sleep but I always need to sleep.

I don't think I've ever went more than 24 hours without sleeping.

For five years, I've been antidepressants and those have either sedated me or made me a bit hyperactive, depending on what I was taking at the time.

The medication I was on until a few months ago was causing me to walk around constantly, pacing up and down and causing terrible foot and leg pains.

I've really calmed down after being taken off that stuff, within a few days I was pretty much me again.

[veracity]

Probably no more than 24-25 hours lately. If it's any longer than that, I tend to get dizzy and have to sleep. No choice on the matter so I typically only go about 20 on a routine basis. My insomnia isn't fun, that's for sure, but I've been conquering it the past 10 years or so. I was really bad at 14, to the point I got hooked on sleeping pills, because I'd go a couple days without sleeping.

[Lester C.]

I had a VERY bad reaction to a diet pill and could not sleep for a month. I would close my eyes and rest but I was always aware of my surrondings and never felt refreashed after resting for a few hours.

[KevinTBrown]

I once held down 4 jobs. They were all with the same company, but with different managers and job duties. For 14 months every single weekend was spent with me not sleeping. From Saturday at around noon till Monday until about 4pm. While I may not actually BE at work the entire time, the amount of time off wasn't nearly enough to sleep. I may have gotten a short catnap on occasion though.

Oh, and the jobs were: Usher at a theater, working 2 different game rooms (one of which was at O'Hare), and helping to set-up/break down an indoor flea market.

As difficult as it was, it was a blast. Of course I was only 20-21 at the time too.

[Ghost]

Can't say for sure, since me going long periods without sleep was kinda common until just a while ago, but something like 35-40 hours at least.

Might depend on whether or not you count one hour naps.

[Jae Namkyoung]

24 - 36 hours, I've gone to 42 hours ONCE, and that was right before my mid terms, I did okay on the midterms got home ... and crashed for 12 hours ... straight.

[Sean Walsh]

Summer 2005.......

Awake on 7am Friday, went to bed at 8pm Saturday.

I think that also led to the longest I've probably ever slept, as I was out at least 14 hours.





And yes, sex was the reason I got zero sleep that Friday night.

[BrianWave]

If I have a ton of work to catch up on, I occasionally go for a 48 hour stretch. By the end of it, I'm on auto pilot, and can't converse or read for shit. The upside is that i wind up sleeping for about twelve hours, and it's the best sleep I ever get. When I wake up, I feel much more rested than I usally do from my 6-7 hours a night normal slumber.

[MartinRedmond]

2 days. I went to sleep once I was "understanding" text paragraphs out of a music partition.

[Sound Silence]

I once stayed up for three days. That night, I was surfing online...when suddenly i looked down and the hairs on my arms started turning into spiders and crawling up my arm...for like one second. I blinked and said, "Time to go to sleep!"

[Calvin Government]

I do 30-40 hours every couple months to reset my sleep schedule and generally to get caught up on something - reading, work, video games, whatever. I've never gone more than that and I'm not sure if I can... but if I don't have a job when I leave grad school in a few months, I might use my free time to give it a shot!

[hellokittykat]

Ok, i work nights and i like my sleep. So if iv got just one day off between shifts i stay awake for that day so i won't waste the day off by sleeping it away. Subsequently i regularly go about 40 hours without sleep once or twice a week. The longest iv gone was just over 70 hours, and i actually hallucinated. I am a security guard and round about the 60th hour i was looking out of the lodge and could see little goblins running up and down the yard. Iv never gone past roughly 40 hours without sleep again. So what's the longest you've gone without sleep and did anything happen?

Ha! :biggrin:

Yeah it is pretty trippy when you reach your threshold of sleep deprivation. I've done, I think, like 48 hours? I can't be sure though because around the 40th hour the Smurfs showed up and stole all of my clocks. o.0

[Cam63]

One day was enough.

[hellokittykat]

One day was enough.

That's not bad-it's one day longer than the time you tried go with beer. :smile:

[K-DoG7p7]

My record is 120-124 hours..

No hallucinations, but then again I don't really remember anything from the last 30 hours...
But my friends tell me I actually had a starring contest against a total stranger who almost pissed his pants because he though I was a maniac planing on attacking him. I was also found wandering the local town..

It was at a Lan party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAN_party) in 2000, more spesificly "The Gathering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gathering_(party))" in 2000

[king mob]

Without chemicals about two days, with chemicals five days.