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What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

outsideonline.com

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Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#81

Post by grp000 »

eyegor wrote: post #50

I'm sure that it must be true based on how other people act on little sleep, but for me the effects this article claims are blown way out of proportion (or just seem wrong). > longer than 48 hours and you’re looking at behavior that mimics psychosis—incoherent rambling, disconnection from reality, prone to outbursts Does anyone else here have experience staying awake this long? In college I frequently stayed awake fo…

I had a bad reaction to an antidepressant that caused me to go for about 6 months with very little sleep 3 years ago. On median, 44 awake, 4 asleep. My record was ~65 hours before sleep. I personally only experienced hallucinations as well at around the high mark. My case was unique in that it was induced by medication causing a chemical change in the brain, not a personal choice, but my mood during that time was quite terrible, and the physical discomfort caused by headaches was extreme.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#82

Post by colechristensen »

puranjay wrote: post #65

I'm an amateur musician. Somehow all my best musical ideas pop into my brain right when I'm about to fall asleep. Lots of other musicians I've spoken to say the same thing. Why is that?

it has been known and done by many people through time

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#83

Post by miscellaneous »

K0SM0S wrote: post #35

I've suffered from insomnia most of my teen and adult life (I am 37). I sometimes go up to 3 days without sleep (thus 2 nights, ~60 hours total; 'record' just shy of 80 hours), then sleep for ~12 hours. I usually work almost the entire time. My "default" day seems to last 25~30 hours, give or take, which means that naturally there are more like 6 'days' per week for me. ('days' roughly defined as periods of wake time…

Thank you for the detailed and interesting comment. I wish I could maintain my productivity for extended periods of time like you do. Unfortunately I find that my cognitive abilities drop-off very quickly when become tired.

Also you talk of an 'intelligence switch'. Could you explain what you mean by that?

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#84

Post by mantap »

nashequilibrium wrote: post #73
makz wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One day I could not compile something. After fighting it several hours I decided to go sleep. A few minutes before waking up I dreamed that the solution was to set an environment variable. I even saw the specific variable and which value I had to set. I woke up and immediately tried it. It worked.

Just had one of these moments two days ago, the only other thing that comes close is when I go for long walks.

I have many epiphanies on the toilet. I'm not sure if it's extra blood flowing to the brain or what but the throne seems to add extra IQ.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#85

Post by bradstewart »

Jill_the_Pill wrote: post #15
motivic wrote: post #9

In case you feel sleep is a waste of time, it could actually be surprisingly productive to sleep. Once thing I noticed in grad school is that your sub-conscious is passively working on the problems you encountered even if you are not actively thinking about them. And often I would "dream" up a clever solution to a homework problem during my sleep. J.P. Serre, one of the most brilliant mathematician still living today…

I used to be really good at this. I would wake up with answers, first thought in the morning! But as I have gotten older, the "working on it" dreams have become disruptive and my sleep less sound when processing some problem.

Same experience here. Sleeping with a notebook on my bedside table has helped somewhat--I can write down thoughts as I'm trying to fall asleep and not "worry" about forgetting them in the middle of the night.

But I do resort to sleeping pills after a few of those nights in a row.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#86

Post by jcoffland »

> Push yourself longer than a few days without sleep, and the effects can be lethal.

The above statement in the article links to a story on Reuters about one case of an intern who stayed up for 72 hours and died for unknown reasons. Hardly proof.

This is so overblow. Many people have stayed awake for more than 72 hours and not died. In fact, there is no evidence that sleep deprivation causes death in humans. If you don't agree with that statement please falsify it with proof.

I recently stayed awake for 72 hours as an experiment. It was hard. I had all of the temporary effects described in the article except for hallucination but it was all temporary. After 14 hours of sleep I was perfectly fine. That's one data point.

Don't drive, operate machinery or perform surgery when sleep deprived but it's not some terrifying dangerous thing to go with out sleep for a few days.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#87

Post by verma7 »

puranjay wrote: post #65

I'm an amateur musician. Somehow all my best musical ideas pop into my brain right when I'm about to fall asleep. Lots of other musicians I've spoken to say the same thing. Why is that?

You might find the last section "Sleep spindles and intelligence" in https://www.tuck.com/sleep-spindles/ interesting.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#88

Post by ip26 »

epmaybe wrote: post #68
glaive123 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a great question. As others said, the data is contaminated. Likely people who are sick sleep a lot more. That said, I'm one of those people (healthy, I think) who sleeps 9-14 hours every day. My goal every night is to sleep as long as I possibly can. Nights when I only hit 9 hours is usually because I had to get up to go the bathroom. I have Sleep Apnea but treat it with a CPAP and went from 20 awakenings per…

How do you know you are healthy? Edit: This isn't meant to be accusatory, I'm just curious

To be frank most people with sleep apnea aren't.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#89

Post by betterbeehome »

sysbin wrote: post #34

I achieved what I can only describe as pure euphoria while going without sleep for extended months in my 20s. I've actually been thinking about doing it again recently. It really should only be done if you don't need to drive and have no worry about failing deadlines at work.

Cocaine would be a better choice than chronic sleep deprivation to achieve that. Just saying.

Re: What Happens to the Body on No Sleep

#90

Post by epmaybe »

ip26 wrote: post #88
epmaybe wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you know you are healthy? Edit: This isn't meant to be accusatory, I'm just curious

To be frank most people with sleep apnea aren't.

Yeah obesity is definitely associated with obstructive sleep apnea, no doubt. But what if they just have a thick neck and are otherwise healthy? I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt
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