Who needs sleep?

[Hand of Evil]

Two or three hours sleep a day is common for me and I do it day after day, my body just does not need it for I have I seen doctors on it, drugs seem not to help as I wake up anyway and try to function!

Day-to-day effects are little to none for me when I am doing my daily stuff, desk job, paperwork. But when I increase my activities, I seem to get punch drunk after two plus days, loss of motor skills, don't pick up my feet and focus drops off. It is somewhere after that that all of a sudden things change and I go the other way having a lot of energy, focus and I think lunacy as I get quirky in my thoughts, humor, writing and ramblings.

 

[Zappo]

Not too much, maybe 48 hours. No hallucinations, though I did have some troubles with the perception of time - several hours felt like several minutes. Or it may be because my memory got a bit fuzzy.

I wonder what Piratecat would comment on algolei's tale (he's an expert on sleep, in addition to being a moderator extraordinaire). I thought that sleep deprivation never caused permanent damage, even at these extremes. BTW, I read (in the latest Guiness IIRC) that the record is 11 days.

 

[Umbran]

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...

Well, there's your hallucination right there. A canoe is a flat-bottom boat. The thing doesn't have a keel.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

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

This sounds like some of my game sessions. I know I've annoyed the Dm many times when I am pretty much out of it for no reason at all, just really tired.

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 a sophmore in college (12 years ago), I worked the night shift full time and went to school full time for about 3 months. That left about 3-4 hours before class and 3-4 hours after class for sleeping. I was also dating someone at the smae time, so many of those hours I should have been sleeping were spent in her company. I know there were a few times when I went 36-48 hours without sleep, but would crash for 16-20 hours on weekends when I didn't have to work or go to class. I think my body is still making me pay for it now by making me fall asleep at 9:30 just about every night.

The most recent long time without sleep occured over the summer, and I was up for about 24 hours. I started to get wobbly and have slightly blurred vision at around 20 hours, and had a hell of an upset stomach for a full day afterwords.

 

[derelictjay]

Well, my problem has always been getting to sleep, my parents tell stories of when I was an infant and they would stay up all night trying to get me to sleep.

My favorite all nighter story, I was in college, behind in my class (a very common occurence) anyways, I had done about 3 projects out of 10, and it was the final week of regular session. Anyways to make a long story short, I was awake for 2 1/2 days trying to get my stuff done (all A's on the assignments, yeah I rocked). Didn't hallucinate, but most of my memory as to what I did during that time is a blur, I don't even really know how I pulled it off. Oh yeah, I avoided caffine like the plague, it gives me headaches and helps me get to sleep instead of giving the pick me up.

 

[Bladesong]

Well, I turned 41 last week, so I guess 41 years. Sleep is a deeper subject than "do you sleep or not." There is good sleep, and there is sleep, and there is no sleep. I make sure that my body lays down for at least 6 hours every day (usually no more than 7 1/2). My eyes are closed for about 4, if I am lucky, and I get less than 2 hours of straight sleep every night (i.e. 30 minutes here, 20 minutes there). I will not use drugs as they actually have the opposite effect and keep me awake. It does not matter if I exercise, work hard, play hard, or sit around. The only thing that can make me get more than my 2 hours of sleep is being sick in which case I have been unconscious for 8 hours. Over the years I have been poked, prodded, studied, medicated, analyzed, and criticized and none of them made any difference. Unlike Algolei I am not crazy and manage to have a normal life.

p.s. Wow, quick email. 10 days straight without any sleep at all was the longest that I remember, though my parents said I went longer than that as a child.

 

[Algolei]

I'm currently weaning off of one medication so I can start another, and one apparent side-effect of that seems to be insomnia. But the new medication starts tomorrow, so I'm hoping to get some real nice sleep again soon.

I've never exactly hallucinated, but I have experienced manic episodes, distorted memories, warped vision, and that weird visual thing where objects you're looking directly at appear to move on their own accord. Plus my dreams get tangled up into my memory--I'll often discover suddenly, "hey, that was a dream!" when I'm trying to remember things. And it's not because my dreams seem realistic; it's because my daily existence feels like a dream. An uncomfortable, unpleasant, violently-upset-stomach kinda dream. But hey, ya get used to it after a while.

It's sorta like being drunk all the time. But without the increased feeling of self-worth.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

I've gone around 48 hours with out sleep before a couple times. No hallucinations but my ability to think coherently did suffer. As long as I kept doing something I never got too tired. Eventually though I decide to go to sleep and just go out for around 12 or so hours, after taking a shower of course.

 

[Ferret]

I went without sleep for 28 hours last time I went on holiday. I couldn't sleep on the ferry, so I stayed awake, read an entire book.... Afterwards I had a craving for jams. Sweet, tiny jams....

 

[BOZ]

sleep? it's over-rat.... zzzz....