goofy when overly tired

BEAT

Is thier a scientific reason for that feeling when you have been awake far too long,
everyone has experienced it at one time or another...you begin to get a bit silly ...at first you are tired and sleepy then when you stay awake after your body has told you to sleep you begin to feel giddy before you ultimatley crash.

Any explanations for this?

Amz

Is it something to do with adrenaline?
I'm not sure why it is, I get incredibly hyper active when I'm overly tired.
Possibly why I'm more a night bird than a morning person.

BEAT

I am the same way...down with mornings!! I think mornings are meant for sleeping and afternoons are meant for waking
I come alive when the light fades

Steven999

the exact same happens with me , if i have a sleepness night i get all giddy around 8 and this buzzed feeling lasts till 1 or so . after that i suddenly feel utterly exhausted and confused .

by the way , what's the longest you've ever stayed continuosly(spelling?) awake?

My personal best (or worst?) is 4 days .and you can be sure my cognitive skills dived . before i finally slept i must of been operating minus 80 or so IQ points .

damntheman

I think there is something, I remember hearing about it on tv. There was also something about if you don't sleep you hit a break down point and just become crazy. You start to hallucinate and everything.

Steven999

i dont know about hallucinations but i did forget code numbers which i used almost every day . walking along on day 4 and bam key code to door is gone .even though i had used it 5 mins beforehand. could not for the life of me remember it it until i had slept .

damntheman

"Many organs in the body can rest and recover during relaxed wakefulness -- to a similar extent to that achieved during sleep -- but the cerebral cortex (the surface layer of gray matter that coordinates higher nervous activity) seems unable to do this," said Jim Horne of the Sleep Research Laboratory at the Loughborough University in Leicestershire, England, who wrote an accompanying commentary.

http://www.applesforhealth.com/lacksleep1.html

*******The frontal lobe is the most fascinating section of the brain with relation to sleep deprivation. Its functions are associated with speech as well as novel and creative thinking (5). Sleep deprived test subjects have difficulties thinking of imaginative words or ideas. Instead, they tend to choose repetitious words or clichéd phrases. Also, a sleep-deprived individual is less able to deliver a statement well. The subject may show signs of slurred speech, stuttering, speaking in a monotone voice, or speaking at a slower pace than usual (6). Subjects in research studies also have a more difficult time reacting well to unpredicted rapid changes. Sleep deprived people do not have the speed or creative abilities to cope with making quick but logical decisions, nor do they have the ability to implement them well. Studies have demonstrated that a lack of sleep impairs one's ability to simultaneously focus on several different related tasks, reducing the speed as well as the efficiency of one's actions (8). A person may be able to react to a complex scenario when suddenly presented with it but, similar to the verbal tests, the subject will most likely pick an unoriginal solution. If presented with a similar situation multiple times with slight variations in the information presented the subject chooses the same solution, even though it might not be as applicable to the new senario (9). *******

http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro01/web3/Ledoux.html

Steven999

Once when i was on medication i stayed up for 2 and a half days straight without even realizing it !! I felt zero tiredness and it wasn't until i tried to remember the last time I had slept that I realized how long it had been . it was weird and great .

Victor

Tiredness can be associated with low blood sugar levels which will affect both concentration and motor skills.

Separately, I imagine some of the higher functions of your brain shut down when you are sleep deprived, e.g. "the bit that stops you from being giddy". Behaving yourself is, to a degree a conscious act, not an instinctual one. However, other functions - survival instincts will remain functional. So while speech usually isn't useful for waking a tired person, wetting them, poking them, burning them, having a dog barka t them threateningly, etc. is. That is of course until you reach a point where, I imagine after 24-96 hours, complete exhaustion sets it and the person will be come unresponsive to all but the most extreme stimulii (e.g. direct injection of adrenilin).