Who needs sleep?

[Queen_Dopplepopolis]

Well... at this moment, I am not really lacking in the department of sleep. Really, I rarely am.

See, I suffer from a little disease I like to refer to as "old woman-ism"--it's a technical term. Symptoms are as such: I generally go to bed at ridiculously early hours and, if I don't, I simply fall asleep in whatever strange place I happen to be in at the time. This also means that I spend a lot of game time not really knowing what I'm rolling for... just picking up my trusty d20 and sleepily tossing it onto the table, at the same time handing my character sheet to someone to add whatever modifier is appropriate.

Despite being terribly annoying, it has made me the center of some interesting stories even if I wasn't awake to experience them!

But, I am curious about those of you that actually can go more than 18 hours without collapsing...

What's the longest you've gone without sleep? Did you notice any freaky reactions of the mind or body (aside from extreme tiredness)?

 

[Krieg]

See, I suffer from a little disease I like to refer to as "old woman-ism"--it's a technical term. Symptoms are as such: I generally go to bed at ridiculously early hours and, if I don't, I simply fall asleep in whatever strange place I happen to be in at the time.

Well I don't think old (which is of course relative) women have a monopoly on such traits. I must admit that it is fairly common for my wife to elbow me and insist I stop snoring while we are both sitting on the couch watching TV.

What's the longest you've gone without sleep? Did you notice any freaky reactions of the mind or body (aside from extreme tiredness)?

When I was younger I went without sleep for 72-96 hours a few times. Aside from the headbobbling mini-naps I did experience both visual & auditory hallucinations, which would have been kind of cool if I hadn't been driving at the time.

 

[Galethorn]

The longest I ever went at a stretch, without falling asleep? About 26 hours, but about two of those hours were spent trying to sleep somewhere in the middle, but being unable because it was already getting light out when I was trying to bed down. However, at the end of those 26 hours, I only had a 2 hour nap and a shower before gaming for another 10 hours...then coming home again, and sleeping for something like 12 hours.

Yeah, I'm a wimp, but I enjoy my sleep too much to forego completely for too long of a stretch. Besides, I game best when I'm naturally wide awake...though I do pretty well with massive sleep deprivation when I'm not the one behind the screen.

All that said, I'm going to be 17 next week, so I'm not exactly at the top of my game yet, as far as pulling all-nighters goes.

 

[SpringPlum]

The longest that I've gone without sleep was probably about 26 hours. And that was because I had a make-up final paper to finish for school. At about the 20 hour mark, I would get dizzy just looking at the computer screen. But at the 24 hour point, I felt fine again, must have caught my 5th wind. In fact I drove to McDonald's for breakfast, stuffed myself, and then had trouble falling asleep because I'd eaten too much.

 

[AIM-54]

Longest I ever went was around 50 hours. This was at a training camp for an "elite" scout group that ran a camp in northern Saskatchewan, which culminates with night maneuvers, a series of training scenarios involving various wilderness/survival skills. This is following a full week of serious physical activity and very little sleep. I suffered no hallucinations that I can recall, but I had a friend who had a recurring Cheshire cat hallucination.

I did, however, get stuck in a canoe with a screwed up keel that was hell on earth to paddle across the lake back to camp as the sun was rising...

 

[BSF]

Not much more than 48 hours I think. I know I have worked over 24 hours straight (a mere 27 hours is the longest "workday" I have done) and then there were some ill-advised nights stretching into days and nights type things when I was younger. I haven't had hallucinations, but I can get badly disoriented. Anymore, sleep deprivation brings on headaches, so I have a strong motivator to not push myself as ridiculously as I once did.

Oddly enough, one of my reactions to stress is not sleeping. When I get real stressed (and angry) I feel like I need to reclaim the time lost being stressed. It's stupid and I would not suggest it. It just serves as a downward spiral.

 

[Crothian]

48 hours and it was one of the best gaming sessions I ever have. It was long and fun and got darn silly. When I'm tired I get slap happy, I don't even need something to set me off. I'll just start laughing, seriously hard can't do anything by laugh laughing.

 

[Algolei]

Aw, I was thinking this thread might be about the old Dragon comic strip, Tal'n'Alan: "I don't need sleep, I'm third level!"*

The longest I've gone without any sleep at all was nine days (don't know the exact number of hours). The longest I've gone with less than one hour of sleep per night was (I believe) about a month. Because I'm crazy.

That kind of thing can seriously mess up your brain chemistry. Don't do it on purpose unless it's a matter of life and death. Which hardly seems likely.

Seriously. I'm on medication for the rest of my life.





*I paraphrase. Couldn't find the actual quote.

 

[Kelleris]

I'm a complete sleep-who... Er, afficianado, so I tend to sleep 11-13 hours a day if I have no reason to get up. Unfortunately, I'm also a fairly stubborn college student, so I often find reasons to pass up on sleep. I always get at least 2 hours or so of sleep a night, though, as I grow gradually more inclined to say "screw it, I'm taking a nap" as time wears on.

I think my record is about 2 and a half weeks with no more than 3 hours of sleep a night. That was for the Summer Intensive Greek Institute - 6 credits of elementary ancient Greek in a 7-week summer semester. Woo!

I'm currently sleep-depriving myself to see, of all things, an episode of Case Closed on Cartoon Network. I don't even particularly like the show. Stupid two-parters.

As for symptoms, I tend to get pretty manic after staying up too long, say 20 hours or so. I've gotten some strange looks from essays written in this, ah, "exalted" state of mind. :\

 

[Ashwyn]

I went 72 hours or so once. I saw things moving that weren't actually moving. I wouldn't do it again, I can't stand the feeling of being tired anymore.