How long could you really go with little to no sleep?

[lljh]

Let's say you slept great for 6 months, then insomnia hit. Let's say you get about 3-4 hours of sleep for a few days. How long can you really go like that? I always worry about worst-case scenarios, but I want to hear what others have gone through at their worst bouts of insomnia. I think my worst was 4 hours of sleep over 4 days.

[GeneAllen]

What medicines if any do you take? How long has this been going on? How old are you, and what amount of time is common for you to sleep on average nights?

Peace

[lljh]

I have a fear of dying of lack of sleep. I know it's ridiculous, but that fear takes over after a night of poor sleep.

[GeneAllen]

Not ridiculous, but what meds if any? Peace


Mar 25, 2002



J. Christian Gillin, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, conducts research on sleep, chronobiology and mood disorders. He supplies the following answer.
The easy experimental answer to this question is 264 hours (about 11 days). In 1965, Randy Gardner, a 17-year-old high school student, set this apparent world-record for a science fair. Several other normal research subjects have remained awake for eight to 10 days in carefully monitored experiments. None of these individuals experienced serious medical, neurological, physiological or psychiatric problems. On the other hand, all of them showed progressive and significant deficits in concentration, motivation, perception and other higher mental processes as the duration of sleep deprivation increased. Nevertheless, all experimental subjects recovered to relative normality within one or two nights of recovery sleep. Other anecdotal reports describe soldiers staying awake for four days in battle, or unmedicated patients with mania going without sleep for three to four days.

[GeneAllen]

I drove 36 hours straight one night, and another night. Drank water, and felt good, till I stopped. I tried to sleep. Whoaaa! The body said NO, so I eventually relaxed and it took a while. I did see things in the road that were not there, and was a bit jumpy. I was awake 16 hours before the drive too, so a total of 52 hours awake, then one hour too calm down and relax. No stimulants Peace

[Cimi]

i spent a month with just 2 to 4 hours of sleep.not a good thing.u should take something to help u sleep.