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Not sure how many of you heard the news last month, but a 43-year-old sleep deprivation record was broken by one Tony Wright, in London. The previous record of 264 hours (11 days) was set by Randy Gardner in 1964 as part of a student science project in San Diego. Wright existed on a diet of raw food, salad, nuts and seeds to keep him from the evil zzzzzzzzzzs.
Check out Tony’s sleep deprivation diary here. (highlights include: Day 10 – As it turns out writing while sleep deprived is easily the most difficult thing to do, for that reason I have decided I won’t write anymore, so this will be my last entry.)
What’s the longest you ever stayed awake? My record is about 36 hours when I had to fly from (are you ready for this?) Seattle to Salt Lake to Manhattan to London to Helsinki to Moscow… and, no, I don’t sleep on planes.)
Comments (15)
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My longest time was 51 hours during my sophomore year of college. I was tired, but I just lost the desire to sleep. Finally I gave in after my hands and feet started going numb. Now that was scary.
posted by Lucas on 6-7-2007 at 6:19 am
I did 54 hours one time when I was in my late 20s.
And then there was the time that I only got six hours of sleep in a stretch from 5 a.m. Thursday until 9 p.m. Sunday. That’s what, 88 hours? (What’s more, that stretch involved a non-stop drive from Cincinnati to Dallas, the 6 hours rest, and then a non-stop drive back.) Boy, was I stupid then.
posted by Sandy on 6-7-2007 at 6:54 am
I did a stretch of around 3 days or so (72 hours) back when I was in the army.
posted by Drew on 6-7-2007 at 10:00 am
I don’t sleep as much as most people. I usually get 5 hours a night. I can get by on 3 hours and it is impossible for me to sleep more than 6 hours at a time.
However, I have never been able to stay up for 24 hours strait. In an attempt to do so, I have fallen asleep standing up around the 22 hour mark, hit the floor and didn’t wake.
posted by n2y2 on 6-7-2007 at 10:43 am
“…Seattle to Salt Lake to Manhattan to London to Helsinki to Moscow…”
Why not go from Seattle to Moscow via Japan? It seems like you went 3/4 around the globe in the wrong direction.
posted by Larry on 6-7-2007 at 12:32 pm
ha, funny larry. the moscow trip was unexpected. i already had plans to fly from seattle to nyc. booked 6 months prior. when the moscow trip came up, it was a lot cheaper to keep the tickets i had. but thanks for the concern!
posted by David on 6-7-2007 at 1:03 pm
I stayed up about 40 hours during the summer before my junior year of high school. I worked all day, went to a party at a friends house where I ended up staying up all night playing cards (and drinking?), then had to go back to work all day.
Side note: My friend and I had a joke about mis-hearing the phrase “up late” as “a plate”, so after this stretch he made me an “a plate” award which was a glass plate with “40 hours” written on it.
posted by sara on 6-7-2007 at 1:10 pm
It wasn’t continuous, but it wasn’t pleasant — I flew Chiang Mai to Bangkok to Guangzhou to LA to Las Vegas to Cincinnati. Six hour layover in Guangzhou and overnight in Vegas airport. I think I catnapped on the various planes for a couple of hours total. I think in all it was about 48 hours awake.
posted by RSN on 6-7-2007 at 1:11 pm
I’m only in grade 12, so I’ve yet to have the most amazing sleep deprivation experiences possible, however..
I participated in a 24 hour music marathon thing called Keep the Beat at my school, ended up awake for about 37 hours total.
Aside from that, the night before last I pulled an all-nighter to finish a documentary for an Economics class and was awake for about 40 hours.
posted by Samantha on 6-7-2007 at 3:30 pm
Last summer I flew from Houston to DFW to Tokyo to Seoul had a 12 hr layover in Seoul then flew to Beijing then to Kunming (China)… I left Houston at 6 am on the 27th of July, and arrived in Kunming at 4 pm on the 29th. I recommend NOT doing that. (not that you’d ever fly to Kunming, but in the event that you do- don’t go that way)Someone else who’s good at math can figure out how many hours that was. This summer I get to fly to Frankfurt (via Bangkok) and then take a train to Krakow. I have 6 hours in Frankfurt then to Berlin then to Warsaw, a few hours in Warsaw then to Krakow. I’ll get back to you on how many hours of sleep I get.
posted by greenstrawberries on 6-7-2007 at 7:19 pm
I can’t sleep in airplanes either, so any time I travel I can count on being awake. The whole trip. The longest I can recall was about 50 hours returning to the US from Africa. A 9 hour bus trip from the village we were staying at to the airport – lots of waiting – long flight to Paris – lots of waiting – long, long flight to Chicago – lots of waiting – still more waiting – still more waiting – flight to home – arrive early in the day – too many visitors want to hear stories…
I picked up a virus somewhere along the way, and with a weakened immune system, ended up sick for the next week. I’m too old for stuff like that. But I can’t wait to go back!
posted by Dave on 6-8-2007 at 6:18 am
*snort* Amateurs! Try caring for premature twins with an autistic 2 year old already in residence. And since I was nursing, I didn’t use caffiene! I went for months on less sleep than a hospital intern and almost ended up in the hospital. I got to the point where I could literally go to sleep on my feet.
posted by Pam on 6-8-2007 at 5:59 pm
I did three days in a row last semester. I actually needed to keep going, as I was working on my fifth paper due that week, but I ended up fainting in my room and apparently didn’t wake up for a few hours. When I finally did, I felt somewhat rested, confused as to why I was on the floor, and in pain from a nice bump on my head.
posted by Katie on 6-8-2007 at 6:06 pm
Around 50 hours after flying back from Africa home to Cleveland (can’t sleep on planes either) and meeting up for a long night of drinks with my friend whom had just gotten home from Mexico.
posted by Steve on 6-8-2007 at 10:40 pm
Got up at 5:00am on a tuesday, went to bed at either 1:00 or 2:00am thursday so that’s 44 or 45 hours.
posted by Tdave on 6-11-2007 at 1:39 am