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Randy Gardner didn’t sleep for 11 days and 25 minutes, under observation, at age 17. This is the longest verified time spent awake by a human. https://en.wikip

• bhhaskin 8y ago
  Super interesting. It really just goes to show how very little we actually know about sleep. Thanks for sharing!
• rofo1 8y ago
  My personal "record" is little above 5 full days, without sleeping even a single minute. Without going into details, I had a traumatic event and I couldn't fall asleep. Interestingly, I didn't feel that tired. On the last day, I even exercised. I felt mentally slower, though, for sure. Like operating at 50% intelligence. People that don't sleep for prolonged periods of time will eventually die [0]. No way around it. It's one of the reasons that Guinness World Records banned sleep deprivation records. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_insomnia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_insomnia
  • solveit 8y ago
    While I'm sure that sleep deprivation will eventually kill you (although I'm not sure if it's at all possible to keep someone from sleeping to that extent), insomnia isn't what kills you in fatal familial insomnia. The killer is prions turning your brain to mush and turning you first into a vegetable, then killing you.
    • perl4ever 8y ago
      It seems (perhaps too) obvious to me, that if sleep didn't perform some vital function in maintaining the body and/or brain, then evolution would have eliminated it due to the disadvantage of being vulnerable and inactive for a large part of the day.
  • ebg13 8y ago
    > People that don't sleep for prolonged periods of time will eventually die Everyone will eventually die.