How Long Can You Really Go Without Sleep?
Sleepless nights are a reality for many of us: parents of newborns, students preparing for exams, people struggling with insomnia. We all know we need sleep, but come on, can’t we do without it for a while? Sort of, but it’s not pretty.
World records for sleep deprivation
The most famous sleep deprivation record holder (although not the current record) is Randy Gardner, who is widely believed to have experienced the most documented period of extreme sleep deprivation in a person: 264 hours, or about 11 days. .
As NPR reports , Gardner was working on a science fair project with two other students in 1963, and they decided to beat the 260 hours of insomnia they heard a radio DJ had. Gardner lost the coin toss and was left awake while others watched him and tested his cognitive abilities. At that time he was 17 years old.
His experiment attracted media attention, and soon Stanford sleep researcher William Dement and Navy medic John Ross began evaluating it as well. After reaching the 264 hour mark, Gardner had a brain scan (which showed he was healthy) and then slept for 14 hours.
His record was broken several times after that, most recently in 1986, when stuntman Robert MacDonald went nearly 19 days without sleep . This is the last documented world record. Don’t try to beat it, though: in 1997, Guinness World Records decided to “stop tracking” the insomnia record. They acknowledge that publishing the record means people will continue to try to break it, and the effects of extreme sleep deprivation are considered dangerous enough that they didn’t want to encourage it.
However, if you want to know more about the record holders and their experiences, there is a summary on their website . Interestingly, Peter Tripp, a record-breaking DJ in the 1950s, experienced severe hallucinations that may have been caused by the Ritalin he was taking to stay awake rather than a direct result of insomnia. (However, some hallucinations may still occur due to sleep deprivation alone.)
Effects of extreme sleep deprivation
Record holders on the Guinness Book of World Records website often reported feelings of nausea and irritability. On the fourth day, one of the scientists observing Gardner recalled that he had “hallucinations, delusions, and an extremely short attention span.”
1974 record holder Roger Guy English, who used no stimulants other than caffeine, reported experiencing hallucinations that continued even after the experiment ended. Another record holder, Maureen Weston, had hallucinations while suffering from insomnia, but said she made a full recovery once she was able to get some sleep.
The StatPearls guide to sleep deprivation reports that chronic sleep loss (which may include some but insufficient sleep over an extended period of time) can lead to “increased mortality and morbidity, poor waking performance, leading to increased accidents and injuries, lower self-reported quality of life, decreased family well-being, and reduced health care utilization.” They add: “It is clear that sleep loss has a profound impact on a person’s health and well-being.”
How long can the average person go without sleep?
Let’s turn to the military for practical advice. The military needs its service members to be able to function, but they often give them tasks that make sleep difficult or impossible, so they have developed policies on this issue. The Pentagon report on sleep deprivation defines “total sleep deprivation” as being awake for 24 hours or missing a normal sleep window, whenever that occurs. In other words, if you usually wake up at 7 a.m. but have been up all night playing video games (or are being shot at by an enemy), when 7 a.m. rolls around again, you will be considered in a state of complete sleep deprivation. .
They also consider “partial sleep deprivation” to mean a period of time during which you sleep less than seven hours each night because your sleep period has been either shortened or interrupted. One week of this period is considered “chronic partial sleep deprivation.”
According to the same report, every 24 hours of total sleep deprivation results in a “25–35% decline in performance on cognitive tasks.” It’s not that you hit a wall after a certain number of hours and become unable to function, but rather that as time goes by while you’re deprived of sleep, your brain functions less and less well.
The report also found that sleep deprivation may increase the risk of traumatic brain injury, increase feelings of emotional exhaustion and role overload (burnout), increase and worsen anxiety symptoms, worsen symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, and increase depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts. attempts.
The bottom line, according to the military, is that members should be given responsibilities that allow them to sleep eight hours out of every 24 hours, if possible. If this is not possible, plan to “delay” sleep before the insomnia and leave time for “recovery” sleep afterwards (like how Gardner passed out for 14 hours after his experiment).
What if I can’t sleep?
A clinical case of insomnia is a completely different situation from that of a student or a soldier who has pulled an all-nighter. Insomnia can have many causes, so it’s worth getting tested to find out what’s going on in your body and brain that’s preventing you from getting a good night’s sleep. The advice you receive will depend on what exactly is wrong.
However, it’s worth noting that just because you think you’re awake doesn’t mean you actually had a sleepless night. Whenever I interview sleep experts, they always tell stories of patients who swore they didn’t sleep at all, but a sleep study showed they caught a few Zs without even realizing they were distracted.
Even the Guinness Book of World Records admits this: one of the reasons they stopped keeping track of insomnia, besides the health risks, is that people who appear to be awake can still experience “micro-sleep.” The CDC, discussing the impact of long shifts on nurses, writes that “a sleep-deprived person cannot control the occurrence of microsleep and is often unaware that it is occurring.”
Sleep experts recommend that instead of staring at the clock and worrying about how much sleep you’ve been getting, do your best to relax . Relaxation is almost as beneficial as sleep and often leads to sleep. If you continue to notice problems with daytime sleepiness or have other sleep problems, contact your doctor.