Staying awake

[deepak]

I need to get at least five hours of a sleep a night to stay mostly functional. Seven hours is the perfect amount. I've probably done 45 hours for a paper or something. I regularly have to do 20-24 hours post call days. It's even more insane in Ireland/England where you don't get out of the hospital at 10-11 am (like we do in the US) post call, and instead you could be there as late as 6 pm. That's pushing 32 hours....not very safe...

I think I did a bit over 30 hours studying for a major exam. Not a good idea, I knew the material perfectly, but failed the exam because I just couldn't function mentally.

[The Monkey]

around 48 for me. Working on a deal in London in the City, where it's not exactly easy to order in a good meal.

[catscratch]

4 nights and 5 days with no sleep, probably 100-110 hours total. No drugs involved other than caffeine. It was during a laser tag tournament (yes I'm a dork) and the only people who could conceivably have set up the equipment and made sure it all works were me and my friend. He's a marine and I'm, well, a freak as far as not sleeping goes so we both were fine. But, I would never do it again unless I had to.

Pulling all-nighters and working hard the next day is a pretty common thing for me, so I have a lot of experience in functioning while under a lot of sleep deprivation. At the same time, I seem to need more sleep than the norm - 9 to 10 hours a day is what I usually try to get when I have the luxury of keeping a stable sleeping schedule.

I tend to stay away from stimulants (except caffeine) or sedatives of any kind, so I don't really force artificial changes in sleeping schedule.

[archosman]

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)...

Same here...