Woman 'hasn't slept for eight years'

Originally posted by cherokee
I was talking with a guy at work that only get's about 40 hour's of sleep a month. his brother is the same way. He work's 2 job's to stay busy and hate's that he can't go to sleep with his wife. He has been to doctor's and they tried giving him volume's "25 mg anyone know how strong that is?" they woke him up even more. to prove this to his doctor that didn't believe him he went into the office and took 10 of those in front of the nurse who freaked out. he convinced her to wait for the doc for his appointment and about 30 minute's later the doc came in and the nurse told him what he had done. The doc hurried up to take his blood pressure because they said he took enuff to put a horse to sleep. his blood pressure was above normal from the volume's. You tell me what you think .

Sounds like he has an opposite reaction than other people when they take the same chemicals. His brain is probably wired differently, but if he doesn't feel tired i don't think it should matter. My mom says i only need 5-6 hours of sleep a night, i said she's smoking and that i need at least 10. everyones different.

to all those wanting to break the record i have one word for you...

SPEED

Gauranteed (if your alive) to keep you up for 8 years straight if you keep your dosage up... but then you'd have to deal with the side effects (lack of appetite is one so you'd starve)... the odds are you wouldnt make it

I haven't read all the replies but it is medically impossible to not sleep for 8 years and still be alive.

There was an American teacher he had a genetic condition at a certain age(around 40) the condition kicked in.The part of the brain that allows us to fall asleep had stopped working.This was not insomnia and it was medically untreatable.Previously the record for staying awake was held by a radio presenter(I forget how long he stayed awake) he suffered long term psychological problems as a consequence.

The teacher was physically unable to sleep and it was the medical worlds best example of the long term effects of sleep deprivation.

He became slowly weaker,his speech became so impaired that it was difficult to understand him and he eventually died after around 6 months.

I'll try and find some links but my point is that it is impossible to not sleep for 8 years and live.

Well if I where in space would I really need sleeping at all? I would never be tired? Or if I was on mars I would be 3 times lighter, strong and could work 3 times more? And sleep 3-6 times less...

[Edited on 5-4-2004 by Cardu]

I think I'll try staying up for a week or more. I want to see if the halucination part is true.

becarefull what you wish for.. my saying i'll stay up for 2 days is happenning, but not by my choice, got a virus and kept me up all night after i went to bed last night. still havent slept

Nlive81 be careful. youll see whatever you want to see. just make sure youre in a place thats nice and dark with no light. youll see ''everything.''

its my spring brake, im ganna try to stay awake for at least 24houres, ill post if i maneg to stay upto 3am my time its 6:44 now

(l loved revived good threads )

Originally posted by julianvstheworld
i did develop a smoking habit, and wrote like an entire film script in 4 days. so insomnia cna be productive.

and how is developing a smoking habit productive?

Eight days ???
No way. I need my sleeeeep
zzzzzzzzzz

reply to post by John bull 1


the situation you mentioned there is actually a form of insomnia, it is a very rare form known as FFI or fatal familial insomnia, sleeping pills become useless, nothing works to get them to sleep, after foour months, the body will finally give up, all this no sleep for 8 years is bull, it has to be a scam

reply to post by John bull 1


the situation you mentioned there is actually a form of insomnia, it is a very rare form known as FFI or fatal familial insomnia, sleeping pills become useless, nothing works to get them to sleep, after foour months, the body will finally give up, all this no sleep for 8 years is bull, it has to be a scam

I had a roomate in college who could not sleep, not a minute in his life.
He was unusual to say the least. Very productive, Great student. Quite alive, completely incapable of social interaction in a normal sense.

He would sit on the edge of my bed at 3:00 in the morning wake me up and ask what are we going to talk about tonight?

My response was "Your death!"

Originally posted by McGotti
"tweekers" as I call them[meth users] stay up for weeks at a time...and they keep doing this over and over again....they get all tweeked out and stay up for a 3-20 days and then sleep a few hours and then start all over again.

20 years ago that was me...and yes it was anywhere from 3 to 20 days at a time sleep for a day usually then start again. Yes I was Young, yes I was DUMB

reply to post by Nlive81


Believe me....its True!

I stayed awake for six days once by the 6 day i was hallucinating, currently seeing how long i can stay awake for so far it has been 2 and half days without sleep, i seem to be smoking less then normal, my brain seems to be working fine if not better, i love the feeling of when your brain races

Prior to this little sleep experiement for 2 years i only got 1 hour sleep a day til my boss brought it to my attention that i was acting a bit odd doctors told me i had bi-polar disorder put me on serequel xr, that stuff makes u feel like a zombie or sometime u don't even know who u are, personally being on anti-psycotics for this 3 months straight

If i had to choose between these A or B I would choose B

A) Your own heavy medication where u can't think and the world is messed up
B) Your on a no sleep regimend and you can think but world is still messed up

Bi-polars you can't spell for #, but can stay awake for days without food or water and its nothing coz we are naturally hyper

I didnt sleep for about 2 and a half years. I would lay in bed wide awake all night and think about stuff. at first i did this kind of by choice, but after a while my brain would just run all night and i felt like a bystander in my own head. i started sleeping again recently but i can go only about two weeks of having a normal sleeping cycle before i stay up and sort of "skip a day". As for what its like, time went by extremely fast and i have little recollection of anything in the past few years. You basically lose more and more brain function as time goes on and right now I have to learn everything again. How to think.. feel.. see.. hear.. motor skills.. none of it works unless the mind can rest. I don't doubt the mind can run for 8 years without sleep but it would be on auto pilot.. and a "soul" might be close to non-existence in that persons brain. So the moral of the story: SLEEP IS GOOD!

There is a rare condition that allows for extremely little sleep. I believe it's called nonsomnia.

Nonsomniacs don't need sleep to stay alive (the rest of us do, nonsomnia isn't a trick that can be learned so please don't try), although they tend to spend the night doing quiet activities like reading. They generally do close their eyes for a short light sleep, the length of which varies per person (anywhere from a few hours to a few minutes per night).

I didn't know people existed that didn't sleep at all, but I guess a genetic mutation can get you a long way.

As to reason for sleep: I thought we're still not sure. There are numerous theories, each with their proponents. The restoration theory is a prominent one which claims sleep is needed for the repair of brain cells. Another theory claims we need sleep to prevent us from roaming around dangerous, predator-filled nights.

That fact that nonsomniacs function just fine is a blow to the restoration theory in my opinion and may indicate that sleep is a mechanism which has outlived it's use.

I've been going for 42 hours straight now. I'm not finding it particularly difficult to stay awake but the prospect of sleep is exceedingly inviting right now. I'm a little bit drunk too and I feel pretty strange. I reckon I'll carry on going until I reach 48 hours. It's a milestone of sorts. Then I'll probably crash out for 15 hours or so.

The longest I've been without sleep was somewhere between 80-90 hours.
I can confirm that hallucinations do indeed take place. Objects in my peripheral vision were floating up into the air but when I looked at them they weren't moving (well of course they weren't).

At one point in a state of utter confusion I suddenly found myself under the delusion that I was a clockwork man and I began frantically searching my bedroom for the key to wind myself up before I stopped working. After about a minute of searching drawers and cupboards I suddenly realised I was hallucinating from sleep deprivation. It was a most odd experience.

completly off subject but i once slept for 2 weeks straight. and when my wife took me to the doctors they said nothing was wrong. now i cant sleep do any of you have the slightest clue of whats going on?