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Staying awake


Duggeh

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Whats the longest time that you chaps have run for without any shut eye?

I'm up to 45 hours now, which is I think, the longest I've gone. I'm now just doing it out of some sort of strange morbid masochist curiousity, my companions are two seasons of charmed I've not yet watched and a 12 pack of Tennants lager, 7 to go.

I've no class tomo. No deadlines coming (original stay up was for last recent one).

Should I collapse into bed, its there. Like, 2 feet away. All snug and warm.

OR

Should I just keep going. In the name of science. Or whatever passes for science these days?

I'm aware (from reading and such) of what symptoms I might expect (increasing chance of hallucinations, continuing deterioration in my motor control and speach, increasing feelings of being cold and tired limbs.

Tra lala.

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I have certainly done long stretches involuntarily for work in the last 17 years as a lawyer, but in college I did it more of my own will. In college I had a tradition of staying awake on Pete Townshend's birthday from midnight to the next night at least so that I could play every Who and Pete record I had for 24 hours of Pete and re-Pete as necessary. One of those years I recall staying awake until the 2nd day and trying to play softball in the afternoon. I would of course drink plenty in those hours to keep going, and I recall having some Olde English 800 malt liquor that put me completely over the top for that period. I struck out in slow-pitch softball, which is really saying something for somebody who played baseball all of his life.

Ah, good times. I hope you plowed through the remaining 7 cans, Duggeh. Those late hours are the best. >:D

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I've gone three or four days without sleep more times than I'd like to remember, almost always due to a combo of work responsibilities colliding with school and home responsibilities and no room for mistakes anywhere. It's strange that once you cross the 72 hr mark, it's like your brain separates from your body. I would be completely lucid mentally, but not be able to get my body to cooperate (typing, etc). Strange feeling. That hasn't happened, thank god, in a long time. I still go one or two days without sleep fairly regularly, but I don't like it, and do my best to avoid it.

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Well if I put in just one episode of Charmed I'd be out like a light in no time at all.

I've only gone 48 hrs. w/no sleep once. Toward the end of that span I got what I can only describe as a feeling of absolute clarity and the knowledge that everything in my life would work out OK. I was frantically writing things down thinking I may forget them once I slept, but I didn't, and that sense that everything would be OK has never dissipated in the 23 years that have followed since this incident.

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The longest was probably around 40 when I had to finish my high school graduation paper. I don't think I could handle more than 2 days without falling asleep at some point against my will. During some exam weeks, daily sleep was reduced to 2-4 hours a day but I need at least some sleep to function properly.

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Junior and Senior year i would stay up from thursday to sunday with no sleep maybe 3 times a month, if i was that lucky to get a sunday off.

Thursday mourning i would wake up to get ready for school, after school i would work 8 hours at the grocery store job after that i would shower i do either a rave or a party with the lighting job. come home at 5am and get ready for school on Friday mourning then repeat this till Sunday mourning. all day Sunday i would sleep and if i was awake i was just a zombie. i cut the lighting job down by hiring people when i was 19 so they could do the work for me, at the time i was getting more work almost every month. i probably lived like this from the age 17-19, which now i look back i remember all i thought about back then was the feeling to retire..haha

i lost alot of weight at this age and did not have time to drink or do drugs which i guess is a good thing. the important part was having that Sunday to sleep all day, if i did not then the whole week would be seriously messed up and hard even if i would get some sleep in the week.

after high school i had a few people working for me often on the weekends but i still had to drive out to either pick up money or the lights themselves at the end of the party. so instead of working the parties directly i would spend most of my time just driving from one to the other.

i don't regret it but if i gave advice to a 17 yearold now i would tell them work is important but don't live to work exp at that age. i missed out on alot of crap and fun my friends the same age was doing cause of the work.

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Whats the longest time that you chaps have run for without any shut eye?

around 30 hours non-stop but a recurring effect of when I relapse is disrupted sleep patterns. On that basis for the last 5 years I have mostly been in a sleep deprived state.

Try staying awake once (to sate curiosity) but best not to make a habit of it. The clumsiness, lack of memory and misinterpretation of stimuli involved can make a person quite accident prone.

p.s. this put me in mind of the channel4 reality show "Shattered", it was aired in the UK in 2004 and was a contest where the subjects (who were shut in a simplified big brother house) were to remain awake for a week with the the ones that made it being put into a sleep-off to decide the winner of the

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Longest I tried was 57 hours. I woke up Friday morning at 8:00 am, went to uni, then I attended a linux party from Friday night to Sunday morning, and finally I attended a family birthday until around 4:00 pm. At that time I decided I needed sleep and I finally hit the sheets around 5:00 pm. I slept until the next morning which is also the longest I've ever slept (14 hours).

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