12 days, 1 hour, 34 minutes and 16 seconds.

Submitted by ItsJustMe134582 t3_yh0r1e in nosleep

The longest I have ever gone without sleep previous to this experiment is 5 days. I have been training my body for the past year to withstand conditions most humans wouldn't imagine. I have stayed awake 24 hours while lifting weights for 20 of those hours, then running 5 miles. I would then walk around for 6 and a half hours making my total 30 hours. For the next 18 hours I would continue my life like everyday. Writing, documenting, talking, walking, working etc.

I have done this experiment successfully 10 times of straining myself for 48 hours,. I now have the stamina of... Well I don't know what to call it. But I have it. I reguarly don't sleep for 3 days at a time. The longest anyone has stayed awake is 11 days and 25 minutes. It was set by Randy Gardner in 1963. I want to top that. Here, I will be documenting what happens, as well as a camera that will be reviewed after every 6 days. Why am I doing this you may ask? Well, me and a friend of mine want to see the effects that lack of sleep have on the human body. I won't have contact with anyone for as long as I can go without falling asleep. I will not use any energy boosters. Wish me luck.

Day 1, 12:03 AM: These first 24 hours have been a breeze. No signs of hallucinations, sleep deprivation, loss of congitive or sensory abilities, and no eye bags. All work done today has been productive and easily completed. Appetite is unaffected. No signs of agression or change in mood.

Day 2, 12:04 AM: Day 2 is a repeat (with slight differences) of day 1. No signs of hallucinations, sleep deprivation, loss of cognitive or sensory abilities. I do have eye bags. All work done today has been productive and moderately easy to complete. Appetite is unaffected. No signs of agression or change in mood.

Day 3, 12:01 AM: Today is actually easier than yesterday. No signs of hallucinations, sleep deprivation, loss of cognitive or sensory abilities, and the eye bags aren't as noticable. All work done today has been very productive and easy to complete. Appetite is unaffected. No signs of aggresion or change in mood.

Day 4. 12:02 AM: Today has been the worst by far. No signs of hallucinations, signs of early sleep deprivations, no loss of cognitive or sensory abilities, eye bags are carrying in groceries. All work done today was not productive and moderately difficult to complete. Appetite is unaffected. No signs of aggresion, mood has been declinded.

Day 5, 12:04 AM: It is worse than yesterday. Some signs of audible and visual hallucinations, seeing and hearing things that aren't there. Signs of moderate sleep deprevation, slight loss of sensory abilities, cognitive functions are normal. You can guess the update on the eye bags. All work done today was unproductive and very difficult to complete. Appetite is unaffected. No signs of aggresion, mood has declined moderately. Tommorrow is uncharted territory for me. Will not be leaving the testing chamber in my basement until the experiment is completed. I have nothing but this computer, a bed, food and water.

Day 6, 12:05: It has officially been 144 hours since I slept. Various signs of visual hallucinations, seeing small floating balls. Signs of moderate sleep deprevation, slight loss of sensory and cognitive abilities, unable to run excercise for longer than 30 minutes per day without total exhaustion. Small amount of work done today, very unproductive and extremely difficult to complete. Appetite slightly affected due to sickness of the stomach. Some signs of irritation (no aggression), mood has declined moderately.

Day 7, 12:00 AM: The creatures have begun to haunt me in the shadows. I can ignore them for now. I have severe sleep deprevation, I have lost my ability to speak, and cannot excercise or run. Unable to do any work whatsoever. Appetite affected slightly due to vomitting. Extremely irritated, some signs of aggression, mood has declined severely.

Day 8, 12:05 AM: The monsters have been gone for today. I have severe sleep deprevation, I haven't been able to speak yet. I cannot excercise or run. Appetite moderately affected due to vomitting and inability to digest food. Extremely irrtated, signs of aggression, mood is non-existent.

Day 9, 12:07 AM: The monsters still aren't back, but they are watching. Always watching. I don't want to sleep anymore. I can't speak. I cannot run or excercise. I cannot eat but I can drink small amounts at a time. I vomitted 6 times today. I don't know if I am being paranoid, but any noises at all have me wanting to scream. I have been trying to attack the creatures in the walls. I don't think my mood is any better.

Day 10, 12:02 AM: The monsters won't come back, and I want them to. I just want to know where they are. Then I can stop them. I can't speak. I can't walk. I can't eat or drink. I have red goo coming from my mouth. I have been hitting the walls all day and now my fists have the red goo coming from them.

Day 11, 12:03 AM: I did it. I lasted longer than anyone ever has. The monsters aren't back yet, but they will be soon. They don't know I heard them say it. They will be back. When they are, I will be ready. I have been preparing. I know that if I can't see or hear them they can't hurt me. I won't tell you because you will tell them. I can't talk, but I can scream. I have been screaming for 7 hours. I can't walk, or use my legs at all. I can't eat or drink. The goo is coming from my mouth and my hands. My fists don't hurt anymore, and I can hit the walls as much as I want. There are cracks in the white hard things that are in my knuckles. The skin is ripped off and stuck to the walls.

12 days, 1 hour, 34 minutes and 16 seconds: Hello. I conducted this experiment with a friend of mine a few years ago. They went without sleep for the exact amount of time stated. 12 days, 1 hour, 34 minutes and 16 seconds. We found them in a bloody mess on the ground. We were unable to save them. I decided that I shouldn't tell their story until I felt it was the right time.

They had clawed their eyes out. They were still attatched, but haning out of the sockets. They had ripped their ears off and put inside the canal the stuffing of a pillow provided for them. They had ripped open their stomach, and pulled out their intestines. Their heart had been crushed, and was found with their hand wrapped around it gripping it. They had a smile on their face, they had shattered knuckles, 14 broken ribs, and were paralyzed from the waist down. They had written (in blood) the words "NO SLEEP" over and over again all over the walls. On the floor they had written a short passage stating,"I don't sleep and I see them. You sleep and you don't. Just don't sleep. Just don't sleep. Just don't sleep. Just don't sleep. Just don't sleep. Just don't sleep." They had ruptured multiple arteries and were pronounced dead on the scene. The footage was confinscated by the F.B.I. and examined thoroughly before being returned to me. It took me 2 years to watch it. And then after I got out of the mental hospital, I went into the middle of the woods and burned them.

I don't know exactly what happened in that chamber. I saw all of it. I witnessed everything they did. Every. Single. Act. And yet I still cannot understand the horrors that happened in that room. I don't know what to do. I am scared of what will happen if I don't sleep. But I can't sleep. No matter what I take or do. Nothing is working. I am scared... But I am ready. I am ready to see the monsters that mangled my best friend. So, I am putting myself inside the same chamber. I have the same computer. I have the same supplies. I have the same mindset. I have nothing left to lose.

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Comments

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ThisHAStobeaTROLL t1_iuc3k6w wrote

Did 3 days and 5 hrs . Never again

460

Lylat_System t1_iudhrpe wrote

Furthest I ever got was four days...I suffer from insomnia, had been so since preteen. You hear what sounds like flickering lightbulbs at first, or fly buzzing sounds that go from the left ear to the right (or appear to sound like that). For visual, stuff graduates from the corner of your eye, to the corner of the room. This was all when I was 20 years old. I remember I stopped drinking energy drinks out of fear. You know insomnia is bad, when you can take 50 mg of a sleeping pill, 5 times, and it still wouldn't work. Never could afford a sleep study, this makes me want to invest in it all the more.

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WhinyTentCoyote t1_iug05wn wrote

Ugh, that buzzing. Makes you feel disconnected from the entire world and also yourself, somehow.

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eyeball-beesting t1_iue7iij wrote

Jesus! I couldn't do that. Sometimes, I only get around 4 hours sleep and my day is fucked.

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Local_guineaPig t1_iucw8m4 wrote

How did it feel like? What did u see/hear?

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Dagmar_Overbye t1_iudpj9o wrote

Not OP but I once did 4 days. Days 1 and 2 I worked but also had the assistance of a certain white powder. Once that ran out I had two more days off and for some reason I just could not fall asleep. Day 3 was mostly spent in kind of a semi conscious haze, I very well may have been slipping into a few moments of microsleep but from my memory I was awake the entire day.

Day 4 is when it got weird. I started having conversations with people who weren't there. I did actually experience the feeling of there being some sort of beings looking at me from around every corner. You could catch just a glimpse of them and then they'd quickly dart away. I paced around my apartment for hours looking for them. Hiding in bathrooms or closets didn't work because you knew they were just behind the door, waiting for you to open the door and cheekily dart around the corner. They had long limbs and strange mask like faces that I guess kind of looked like those African tribal masks you can see in museums.

Not sure what happened but I ended up sleeping for nearly 48 hours and woke up in a bundle of clothes in the corner of my closet surrounded by rambling notes and drawings of the things I had been seeing.

This is when I ended up going to a doctor and finding out I have bipolar disorder. Get some sleep people and if you start to see things please contact a medical professional.

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Local_guineaPig t1_iue4avl wrote

Yo that sounds scary af. But honestly, even tho I do understand the danger of sleep-deprivation I wanna try sth like this once. Wanna see them creatures too

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Dagmar_Overbye t1_iue5fsh wrote

Weirding me out how many people share that experience of seeing "shadow people" in this comment section as well. I strongly recommend against trying sleep deprivation though it took me weeks to feel normal again and it's very certainly just a trick your brain is playing on you. Plus I'd never have made it 4 days without the aforementioned stimulants which I also do not recommend.

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UsedUpSunshine t1_iuf2j3y wrote

Didn’t sleep for 3 days and could swear my coat rack was the babadook coming for my kids(I didn’t have kids at the time. So I was confused and scared)

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Icy-Actuator5524 t1_iueyada wrote

Longest I did was nearly a week, work, school, work, school, work, work, school

Also suffer from insomnia

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Chrisxy t1_iuk9uo0 wrote

I had 5 days with 1 hr of sleep between them working two jobs. One was a semi poorly lit warehouse, shadow people behind every pillar, the zebra stripe migraines were fucky. Disassociated for 2 hrs and got a ton of shit done on heavy equipment without realizing it. I was eating 2 bronkaid with 600mg jet alert every 4ish hours to work 20hrs a day with an hour and a half of driving

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annnnna237 t1_iucfho1 wrote

I believe that we turn into those monsters ourselves if we don't sleep. We'd be surprised what our mind can do.

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Razer987 t1_iud7jkz wrote

There were weeks when I worked day and night, doing tasks upto 4 AM at night, and waking back up for work at 9 AM. After some days of this routine, I began noticing shadowy movements around me as I sat there watching the depressing white screen of my computer.

One time, I'd lied down for a while and as I opened my eyes to get up and continue, some shadowy figure stood up and hit my face with a hammer using all its might. It was barely visible but he went straight for my eyeball.

It was just a hallucination though, as I felt nothing at all and was too tired to be afraid at that point. But I've a feeling that if any person forces themselves to stay awake, the shadow people would start to make a dent in their reality.

I personally wouldn't dare to make an attempt like that. Wish you the best in your journey...

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youaintinthepicture t1_iudr2xw wrote

Murakami wrote an interesting short story on a woman who suddenly realizes she doesn’t need sleep, and how it changes her attitude to the world. It’s an interesting read if you like this one!

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poretabletti t1_iuewk17 wrote

Could you please tell the name of the story so it's easier to find?

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youaintinthepicture t1_iuewqh6 wrote

im gonna try to find it for u, i’ll edit it into this comment

edit: It’s called “Sleep”, it appears in The Elephant Vanishes, one of his short story collections.

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Dr-Geologist2 t1_iucgjgh wrote

I've only went three days without sleep, but the paranoia, the anxiousness, the aggression, the hallucinations... I couldn't take it anymore.

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Pixxipixlz t1_iucgf32 wrote

The longest I've stayed awake was 8 days. I wasn't doing very well.

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Specialist-Aioli-641 t1_iud8icl wrote

9 and same lmao shit was not good

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CandiBunnii t1_iue7kcp wrote

Damn, I was rough AF after 5 days and couldn't even comprehend more than that.

you guys must be getting the good shit

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krik7 t1_iuciikg wrote

Maybe, without you directly knowing you still have a lot to gain if you don't follow your friend's path... Instead of wanting to meet the horrors in that room, why don't you try meditation for a little bit? What medicines can't give you, meditation seriously can. All you have to do is give it a try... Good luck... 👍🏻

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RickC154 t1_iuctthv wrote

I try not to go without sleep for much more than 24 hours. That's when I start hallucinating. Don't need to dream while awake.

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D180888 t1_iucpaur wrote

i’ve stayed awake for 3 days before and the most recent was 4 days, lately i’ve been having a really hard time falling asleep i’m writing this at 3:43 am, maybe i won’t be able to fall asleep and it’ll be 5 days without it, i hope not. i don’t want to experience that again it was horrible.

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NewEraSupreme t1_iud12hd wrote

Most I ever did was 3.5 days. On the third day it’s hard as fuck to form sentences and stay on point while having mild hallucinations at the same time. Never again. The exhaust on the mind and body together is extremely uncomfortable.

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L0mbart t1_iudewtz wrote

Me April 2020, 2 days with no sleep, doing some migration servers at new datacenter, tired ass hell.

While I tried to sleep, I can hear some people talk to each other in my room, a woman, a man, grannies, and kids voice, they talk, they laughed, sometimes they yelling to each other, I can hear the voice about 5-10 minutes straight, and it's gone, and the voice came back about 30-45 minutes later, until 4.30am, and then I sleep, I promise never do 2 days with no sleep again

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amiawaffle t1_iudqwbv wrote

I didn’t sleep for 2 days when I was like 7 and thought I was so cool and then I looked up the world record and was very disappointed and was like “I’ll beat it I feel fine today!” When my mom told me to go to bed my plan was to stay up all night but right when I hit the pillow I slept like a rock but lied to my friends for about 2 weeks before I told them I slept but I could’ve gone longer and I was submitting my record to Guinness.

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AJ10295191 t1_iue04zs wrote

This takes r/nosleep to a different level literally

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Snule t1_iucd7b1 wrote

Holy... How are you going to handle the monsters? Did you notice a weakness in the recordings?

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PreggyPenguin t1_iue5wky wrote

The longest I've ever been awake was about 72 hours, with a day or two of getting sleep in no more than 4 hour chunks before that. I would hear people calling/ saying my name when no one had. I repeatedly saw large, black spiders descending from black web. I would see what I think was a woman, all shadow, standing on the stairs from the corner of my eye, but if I tried to look directly she'd not be there. I heard doors closing that were never opened, and a sound that sounded like keys jangling on a key ring.

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Extension_Border_629 t1_iue16kj wrote

I did 10 days on meth, but I think I got "micro sleep" but i was in psychosis so I don't remember much of it

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Ashluvsburritos t1_iufhr5h wrote

Earlier this year I was tying to detox at home by myself from a heavy heroin/opiate habit I ended up not sleeping for 5 days.

I became incredibly paranoid. I would swear I was hearing people outside wanting to come in. Since I was alone with my dog, I locked us in the bedroom together all night.

At the same time I didn’t feel like I wasn’t here. It was almost like I was living in a dream. Like I wasn’t a real person anymore. I was just in this lonely void.

It was fucking terrifying and I ended up buying more drugs to stop it so I could sleep.

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Ogskunk-12 t1_iudjsu9 wrote

I remember when I was about 12 maybe 13 I stayed awake for 3 days. Stood the night at my buddies house Friday and all the weekend. By the time I got back home Monday I was exhausted. To be fair all we did during the day was play tag and hide and seek and when night time came around we just played video games all night till the sun came up and once it did we went back outside and played more tag and hide and seek. It was about 4 of us so it was definitely different every game. Had lots of fun. Looking back it was one of the best times of Mt life. Never had any bad symptoms or having the feeling to throw up etc. I guess when your a kid and having fun all the rest doesn't matter. I did crash when I got home slept for 13 hours I believe 😴

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Right_Hand_of_Amal t1_iud5a7m wrote

I stayed awake for 3 days once. I was extremely exhausted, with significant eye bags, but there was no significant effect on my work or appetite, and I was far more agreeable than irritated. There were dome auditory, but no visual hallucinations. Since it was for the military I was surrounded by a large number of people, but there were many hours of just sitting and waiting that slipped by.

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Reddd216 t1_iudc7mw wrote

The longest I went without sleep was roughly 2 & 1/2 days, way back in college during finals week my freshman year. I was so strung out on coffee and mountain dew that my hands were shaking extremely badly. I could barely hold a pencil to actually take my exams lol. I learned never to do that again. Even just a 2 hour nap was better than that.

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TwistyMissTea t1_iue6knt wrote

I’ve suffered from insomnia most of my life but the longest I’ve gone without sleep was 96 hours. I didn’t hallucinate but I felt like I had a horrible case of the flu.

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Ordinary_Watcher t1_iuenj9b wrote

The longest I've gone without sleep is 48 hours, and I hallucinated. I saw dead bodies in my friends truck, just sitting there in the drivers seat and passenger seat. I ran and got him. I made it outside before he did. I saw them run away, so by the time my friend got there, they were gone. He told me it was OK and that I was hallucinating. I stayed awake a little bit longer after that, and anything I saw that was weird, I knew was not real. When I finally got to go to sleep, I slept for a long time, like 16 hours or so. I do not remember exactly the amount of hours I slept, as this was 15 years ago and I haven't really thought about it until now.

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Lolita_Vampson t1_iufioxf wrote

Once i didn't sleep for 2 days because i had to do a lot of drawing for my art exam(I studied painting in the university)the second day I couldn't think clearly and i went out with some friends and their friends and then went back home slept for 20 hours.when i woke up the next day, went out with the same people but I couldn't remember who they were and had to have them reintroduce themselves to me=))))) i was in a manic episode otherwise i wouldn't be able to stay up for 2 days and i got lots of work done and passed the exam =))))

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RPXLII t1_iugcpey wrote

6 days 1 hour and 2 minutes running on purely coffee which still barely affected anything, I was constantly looking behind me, scared to close my eyes while showering, scared to even release my back from against the wall. I’ve made a full recovery since then, however this is very VERY damaging to your mind. In fact it might drive some people insane. As you’ve seen with the Russian sleep experiment.

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OsirisAvoidTheLight t1_iudjv7l wrote

I've stayed awake six days. Hallucinations didn't start until then for me. Saw scarab bettles crawling on the walls

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mangoapple19 t1_iudo1ob wrote

most I’ve gone is three days with two hours of sleep in between, was seeing things in shadows and in the air during the nighttime. Was also on the phone with a friend and I swear I heard my bedroom door open and close but he was undisturbed and when mentioned he said he heard nothing. Never would do again.

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bedsheet_matress t1_iudq082 wrote

Ive read somewhere that your brain starts "eating itself" when you dont sleep for 3-4 days. Not sure if this is true though.

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flyden1 t1_iueu907 wrote

4 days and some hours. Wasn't by choice. Emergency situation at the construction site. Slept for 2 days straight after that and my family told me I slept walked as if I'm still on site.

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_STIFFL3R_ t1_iudg9m5 wrote

U wanna die early, good for you

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bulbabrot t1_iudhbud wrote

I once went three days without sleep. It was absolute hell. I dont remember much of it because it was ~3 years ago but damn fuck that shit.

A few months ago I was high for three days in a row. That also sucked, felt like shit the entire time (mentally and physically). Wouldnt recommend that either, but I think I would rather do this again than go 3 days without sleep. Literal hell

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Finch06 t1_iuet9ub wrote

4 days was my most, slept for around 20 hours afterwards

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SummonerDagger88 t1_iuf03k4 wrote

I can't do this for more than 2 days, I get horrible migraines from lack of sleep. Maybe I should be thankful, because I don't want to see the shadow people you guys are mentioning jn the comments.

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nosleeplurker1990 t1_iuf6j9j wrote

Wow, I used to take stimulants and stay awake regularly for 3 nights and then sleep for a long time and then again. After 2 days normally I would start to see lights differently, hear my husband talk downstairs while he was actually sleeping.. or hear my name being called. All with all not a very nice feeling plus I got very paranoid!! Never want to feel like that. Don’t underestimate sleep deprivation.

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MoneyMakingMatt t1_iuf8jh6 wrote

Sleep deprivation is TERRIFYING man. I’ve gone about 3 days before and I was starting to see the shadows in the corners before I was able to fall asleep

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cbgal t1_iufckum wrote

You must have a new born at home ! ? Haha

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Sodaman_Onzo t1_iufs1nl wrote

74 hours. I saw like disruptions in solid surfaces. A wall would ripple. Patterns on thing seemed to move if I looked at them too long. Weird light patterns. Voices sounded off. It sucked.

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Dizzy-Case-3453 t1_iuguf1v wrote

Why was there a bed in his no sleep testing chamber

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Kugelblitz2003 t1_iue1yfi wrote

The most that I've been is around 32 hours. I didn't even noticed when I felt asleep. It was a fully loose of conscious. 14 hours later I woke up fully disoriented

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kempofight t1_iuf9xhg wrote

78 hours so 3days 6 hours...

I took a train ride around 72 hours in... that was a nightmare tbh... the harders train ride in my life whiles doing it twice a week for over 3years already. It was so mondane and standard normaly but that one really dropt hard..

Anyway the night from the 2nd to the 3rd day i did turn off most lights and sat in front of a mirror for a hour or 2 looking my self in the eyes as mutch as plausible... you compleetly disform in your own eyes then.

The rest of the time was mostly spent on war movies and gaming aswell as i could.. FPS on the 3rd day where quite shit.

No feelings to do ever again tho.

Edit: i also watched "the machinist" on night 2... yeah that wasnt the best move tbh haha

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Adventurous_Let_923 t1_iufh6db wrote

At one point in my life, my lack of sleep combined with taking a new medication caused me to get fired from my job.

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kiki0xo t1_iug2vnm wrote

Nope I can't, I will fall asleep literally anywhere

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Thelnstitute t1_iugsw7y wrote

The most MACHO sleep routine ever

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EducationalSmile8 t1_iuhdm63 wrote

Uhm, well, now that you're trying what your friend did, Good Luck..... Though it's very likely that you'll end up like him...

2

K1_ultra t1_iudau58 wrote

I did 2 days no sleep once I felt like shit no hallucinations tho

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midnight_mystique01 t1_iuehiz8 wrote

Hearing all these stories, I also want to see those creatures once.

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Pr0T0FrEaK t1_iuepajg wrote

Longest I've ever stayed up without sleep was a little over 3days and that was just In processing right before basic training

1

NaseerNYSF t1_iuf6mi6 wrote

I went without sleep my entire incarceration of 6 years and two months due to the infamous booty bandit Mr. Johnson!

1

Mackerel01 t1_iufkb38 wrote

think i did 2/ 2 and a half days once

pretty normal feeling

just kinda slow/sluggish and dull

1

TrustMelmaDog t1_iugpeno wrote

Man the longest I’ve ever managed was like 36 hours and even that for me was horrible

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AshRavenEyes t1_iugxipo wrote

3 days was the longest i went for....just out of sheer curiosity....never agaun will i go for that lobg.

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SebEmesh t1_iujaxxc wrote

Back in 1995 i stayed up once for Five and a half days at Dennys. Wrote some great poetry that got turned into lyrics by VNV NATION. I was in public the whole time drinking coffee.

1

faithababe t1_iud03rv wrote

All that for what?

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Ready-Pomegranate-91 t1_iuebsly wrote

reading everyone story i realized that one day i sent two days without sleep and like suddenly saw a hooded figure flash across my tv, and i’ve thought for a while that was something weird but maybe it was just my brain playing tricks on me. then again,

0