Complete Sleep Deprivation

Lucas10101

Hi,

I was doing a bit of reading into the whole area of sleep and obviously came across sleep deprivation. Obviously, some people have tried records going for 11 days without sleep. But what are the psychological effects of these sleep deprived people, and after how many days do these effects take place. And biochemically, what is happening in the brain when these side effects occur? (I'm not referring to simple insomnia, I mean a person who willingly abstains from total sleep)

I've read wikipedia, and a variety of other websites, and I've found a general lack of detail. Anyone have any further links or know the answer to these?

Thanks in advance.

p.pete

afaik, death.

Valmont

I always found it fascinating that a person can go longer without food than without sleep before death, generally speaking anyway. OP if you're thinking about trying to break the sleep deprivation record, don't do it!

I know hallucinations and severe agitation are just some of the psychological effects that set in after a while and the strongest symptom experienced will usually be an intense and unyielding desire to sleep:p

Latchy

Sleep deprivation has to be one of the worst kinds of torture ever used .

Valmont

"Please Mr. Bond, have another latte, I insist."

p.pete

Valmont wrote: »

"Please Mr. Bond, have another latte, I insist."

lol, in animal studies didn't they use constant handling over a period of days (2 I think, and I can't remember if that was for either rats or puppies - which is less likely to bite) to keep them awake?

Myksyk

As I recall complete sleep deprivation would result in death after about 8-9 days on average. Apparently the body's ability to maintain a constant core temperature is irretrievably compromised at a certain point. before that ... well, all sorts of horrible experiences. I remember reading an accessible and interesting book years ago called the Sleep thieves by Stanley Coren. He looked at total sleep deprivation.

GreeBo

google?

mark renton

I gave up cigarettes a few years back and for a week I was only getting one hour sleep at night, always started at 6am and was awake by 7.

Day 1, 2 and 3 - very irratable

Day 4 and 5 - starting to see things move that usually wouldnt move on their own, chairs, tables etc. This was ok as I really knew these objects cannot move on their own

Day 6 and 7 - starting to ask the question "can these objects really move on their own?"

Thanks God for sleep!!

jimminy-boi

I read a book on sleep a while back, but can't remember much from it. It was 'Counting Sheep', by Paul Martin.

However, from the book 'Elephants on Acid' (Alex Boese) I found a few experiments to do with voluntary sleep-deprivation (p. 93).

Randy Gardner, a high school student in San Diego stayed awake a total of 264 hours (11 days) from 6 am December 28th 1963 to 2 am January 8th 1964. Over this time, "Gardner's speech began to slur, he had trouble focusing his eyes, he frequently grew dizzy, he had trouble remembering what he said from one minute to the next and he was plagued by more hallucinations. One time he saw a wall dissolve in front of him and become a vision of a forest path".

He then slept for 14 hours and 40 minutes, awaking "feeling alert and refreshed" and suffering no long-term neurological damage.

Poor guy's record only lasted 2 weeks, when Jim Thomas stayed awake for 266.5 hours.

The Guinness Book of Records has the record at 449 hours by Maureen Weston.

In 1894 a researcher kept puppies awake for five days, at which point they died. I've also heard to rats being kept awake by putting them on platforms that required them to keep moving, else they fall off into water. They died too, after how long I don't know.

Here's the Gardner reference, for anyone with access to it.

Hope that's interesting

Valmont

jimminy-boi wrote: »

In 1894 a researcher kept puppies awake for five days, at which point they died. I've also heard to rats being kept awake by putting them on platforms that required them to keep moving, else they fall off into water. They died too, after how long I don't know.

I would love to know why the researcher used puppies. Of all the animals he could have used, he used puppies. Jesus.

jimminy-boi

Valmont wrote: »

I would love to know why the researcher used puppies. Of all the animals he could have used, he used puppies. Jesus.

Ah the things psychologists have done to animals over the years. It makes the beauty industry look like PETA fans. Actually, a lot of that appears in Elephants on Acid (I'm starting to sound like I'm trying to sell the book!), including Tusko, who was given 297 milligrams of LSD... about 3000 times the level of a human dose.

Poor Tusko.

Then again, there have been many many many worse treatments of animals.

Joycey

jimminy-boi wrote: »

He then slept for 14 hours and 40 minutes, awaking "feeling alert and refreshed" and suffering no long-term neurological damage.

Im sure ive slept for longer then that before after not sleeping for maybe 2 days. I wonder what the longest sleep without any kind of drug being used is.

Poor guy's record only lasted 2 weeks, when Jim Thomas stayed awake for 266.5 hours.

Ahaha priceless.



Theres a horizon episode airing on May 5th about violence. One of the "experiments" is some guy is going without sleep for a few days I think.

blackgold>>

Lucas10101 wrote: »

Hi,
Obviously, some people have tried records going for 11 days without sleep.

The cia breaks records like that with "their" muslim friends on a daily basis.

bushy...

blackgold>> wrote: »

The cia breaks records like that with "their" muslim friends on a daily basis.

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0524072torture1.html

VinnyTGM

Interesting thread. Isn't too much sleep bad for you aswell (obviously it won't kill you). Sleep apnea. Or inertia (the more you sleep, the more tired you become)

Infoseeking

I would be interested to know what relation sleep deprivation has with creativity. Both of my best creations - a song and a poem - were written after one nights sleep deprivation. I know one night might not sound a lot but the effect it had/has on me can be quite marked. Another thing I'm curious about is the connections - if there are any - between sleep deprivation and the fact that I have schizophrenia. I hope this doesn't sound flaky but sometimes I think that the walls between my conscious and my unconscious selves are thinner than they would be for the average person. My experience becomes very interesting after only losing only one night. I don't hallucinate, but I do feel ... oh, the bloody words are failing me 'Its more interesting', is the best i can do. If anyone wants to experiment on me I'm game It might save a poor puppies life.