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Comment by andrewfromx | Hacker News Reader

I've often wonder what the world record for a human is. Are their competitions? Like can you be the best at staying awake for > 2 weeks?

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It's not ideal. I can't speak from personal experience, but have a relevant anecdote.

My brother was in SIGOPS in the Canadian military, and they had to run combat and stealth field exercises during periods of sleep-deprivation over the period of days(++). He said by a few days in (I can't recall exactly) they were experiencing vivid, realistic audio-visual-tactile hallucinations that they regularly succumbed to believing.

Until he said he started seeing white rabbits bouncing all over an open field between him and passing enemy actors.

Beside any other negative health effects, I just don't think it would be sustainable. The world is weird enough.

> Randy Gardner (born August 7, 1949) is the holder of the scientifically documented record for the longest a human has intentionally gone without sleep not using stimulants of any kind. In 1964, Gardner, a high school student in San Diego, California, stayed awake for 264.4 hours (11 days 25 minutes).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_(record_holder)

The article mentions longer records but they aren't so well documented.

I wonder if there are longer records using drugs like modafinil; I know that the USAF used modafinil to offset losses to mental acuity for wakefulness on the order of 48 hours.

Randy Gardner was on the Hidden Brain podcast last November. It's a good listen with plenty of reasons to always try to get enough sleep.

https://www.npr.org/2017/11/06/562305141/eleven-days-without...

Guinness doesn’t accept new record attempts because it’s too dangerous.

Also, anyone who does this under anything but lab conditions can’t be trusted. They’ll ignore/be unaware of many periods of microsleep which would invalidate any record attempt.

I seriously doubt any person with intact sleep regulation could go anywhere near eleven days without microsleep. Wikipedia is wrong in suggesting that was the case with Randy Garnder (Wikipedia is in general not a reliable source on sleep issues). There were at least strong signs of microsleeps before the fifth day (noted in the study[0]) and my guess is that occasional microsleeps would have happened earlier. They did not closely monitor for microsleep.

[0] Gulevich et al. Psychiatric and EEG Observations on a Case of Prolonged (264 Hours) Wakefulness http://dabamirror.sci-hub.mn/f1cafe0b11ce25fef6875f3c55c6652...

The true record for sleep deprevation may be held by someone with fatal familial insomnia, although it sounds like stage 1 sleep is at least sometimes possible with that condition so it might depend how you count that. Morvan's Syndrome is another one that can cause an extended lack of sleep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatal_familial_insomnia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morvan's_syndrome

Sleep deprivation can have long-term cumulative effects. If you're not doing it for a good medical reason, it's probably a bad idea for your health.

The official record is only a bit over 11 days: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_(record_holder)

A few people claim to have stayed awake for most of their life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%C3%A1i_Ng%E1%BB%8Dc

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Herpin

I think they're lying, but it's worth mentioning!

I don't thing you'll find that many people willing to participate in this.

I personally went through 40 hours of sleep deprivation once(we were on a trip and our host "forgot" that we were booked - apparently he expected a bribe) and it was hell, especially since we were a group, because in these circumstances minor misunderstandings turn into major conflicts easily.

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