Crazy people may not sleep at all for months. What happens if you don't sleep for a long time, scientific facts

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American Randy Gardner set a record maximum stay no sleep, no use of stimulants of any kind. 18 year old high school student was awake for 264.3 hours ( 11 days).

website decided to show the consequences of such an experiment. Depending on the individual characteristics body symptoms different people may appear earlier or later. We strongly discourage you from testing your options.

Day 1

Day 2

On the second day there are significant changes in appearance: bruises appear under the eyes, blood vessels burst in the eyes, and slight trembling occurs throughout the body. The body temperature drops to 35.8°; the sleep-deprived person feels constant chills. The person begins to act aloof, the number of words used is reduced by 5 times, and emotionlessness appears.

Day 3

The third day without sleep will be the most serious test. Body movements will slow down, everything will be very irritating, and thoughts will appear in your head. crazy ideas. A person will want eat more than usual(especially salty and fatty foods), which will lead to inflammation on the skin. On top of everything else, a nervous tic will be added.

Day 4

Closer to the fourth sleepless day fine wrinkles on the face will become visible, and the skin will acquire a pale tint. It was at this time auditory and visual hallucinations will appear, the person will begin to get lost in time and space.

Day 5

On the fifth day, the eyelids will become incredibly heavy and severe eye and headache. Hallucinations will become permanent, hyperactivity will be replaced by impossible fatigue. A person will cease to be capable of self-identification.

Sometimes people find it difficult to answer simple everyday questions correctly. So that you don't get caught awkward situation and not harm ourselves, we explain the nature of the phenomena that surround us every day. This time we'll talk about what happens if you don't sleep.

Late night studying for exams, parties, important work tasks, the birth of a child - most of us sooner or later face forced insomnia. But if a temporary lack of sleep does not harm your health great harm, then prolonged sleep deprivation threatens serious problems.

Sleep is the basis good health along with proper nutrition and regular physical exercise, says board-certified clinical sleep physician Terry Kral. - These three factors are so interconnected that each should be a priority. It may seem that a couple of sleepless nights is a feat worthy of praise. But look at what your body has to face.

24 hours without sleep

US Army veteran Scott Kelly knows firsthand about sleep deprivation. In his service, he had to stay awake many times for more than 24 hours at a time.

There were several cases in Afghanistan and Iraq when, after 15-20 hours of work, a missile attack occurred, and we had to take off,” he recalls.

Military training and regular refueling with adrenaline allowed Kelly to function tolerably, but in normal conditions a day without sleep causes cognitive impairment comparable to alcohol intoxication. A 2010 study published in the journal Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health found that memory, motor coordination, and clarity of thinking decline.

Making decisions becomes more difficult,” says Kral. - You become inattentive, more emotional, have difficulty hearing and are subject to increased risk accidents.

Still from the movie "Fight Club" (1999)

36 hours without sleep

In this phase, health begins to be at risk. After 36 hours of wakefulness, a blood test shows high levels markers of inflammation, which can lead to increased blood pressure and irregular heart rhythms. In addition, under the influence of hormones, a person ceases to control his emotions.

The head begins to buzz, weakness appears, and motivation is completely lost. In some cases, I acted on autopilot, and some of the events immediately fell out of my memory,” Kelly recalls.

48 hours without sleep

After two days without sleep, the body begins to compensate for the lack of energy through microsleep - periods of short-term sleep lasting from one to thirty seconds. As a rule, this condition is accompanied by increasing disorientation.

Microsleep can happen at any time, no matter what you're doing, Kral says. - This condition is especially dangerous for drivers, when a few missed seconds can lead to tragedy.

After 48 hours of being awake, the mind begins to gradually slip away. You may realize that you have been staring into the distance for several seconds, unable to focus on any point,” he recalls.

72 hours without sleep

Three days without sleep leads to disorders of higher mental processes: imagination, perception, memory, thinking and speech.

Even simple conversation becomes a problem, says Kelly. - Hallucinations begin. Once I was on guard duty and more than once I saw someone sneaking into the camp with a gun at the ready. Running up to the “enemy”, I realized that I was actually looking at tree branches or a shadow.

Still from the film "The Machinist" (2004)

How long can a person live without sleep?

One of the most famous experiments to study this issue was carried out back in 1989. Scientists have found that rats completely deprived of sleep die within 11 to 32 days. It has not yet been established what exactly caused the death of the animals. The methods used to keep them awake could also cause death: to keep the rodents from falling asleep, they were constantly shocked with electric shocks.

The question of how long a person can go without sleep remains unanswered. Outside the laboratories, people died from rare genetic disease- fatal familial insomnia. The disease progresses rapidly, accompanied by hallucinations, weight loss and the development of dementia. The most famous patient with this diagnosis is Michael Corke. He died after 6 months of complete sleep deprivation, but as in clinical experiences in animals, it is difficult to determine whether there was insomnia main reason of death.

In the 1960s, high school student Randy Gardner decided to break the record for the longest stay awake. During the experiment, he developed visual, speech and memory impairments. Towards the end of the experiment, the boy began to hallucinate. All these symptoms developed over a period of 11 days.

What happens to a person if you don’t sleep for 24 hours? Many people can go without sleep for a day or two without any visible damage to their body. Biorhythms remain normal, you can only feel mild condition fatigue. But medicine knows cases when patients cannot sleep at all for several weeks. The consequences for the body are difficult to predict. But in some cases you need to hold out without sleep, even if you are very tired. This is required by responsible work, force majeure situations, conflicts, and family circumstances. The body quickly compensates for a day without sleep good sleep the next day, there will be no bad consequences.

Emergency situations arise when you need to live a day without sleep. With the right approach, the body will practically not feel the stressful situation and will quickly recover. How to hold on without falling asleep?

Medication methods in such cases they are not suitable, but traditional methods can be used:

  1. Drink a cup of strong coffee in the evening or green tea. These products contain a large number of caffeine, a drug that activates neuroreceptors in the brain and prevents a person from falling asleep. Only some organisms perceive caffeine as a sleeping pill.
  2. Evening and night walks fresh air. They refresh, relieve drowsiness, stress, open air leads to an increase in oxygen flow to the brain and increases activity.
  3. Get a good night's sleep first. If a sleepless night awaits, it is better to get a good rest in advance, preferably on the weekend.
  4. If you have a free minute, it’s better to take a little rest right away. Then it will be easier for the body to tolerate heavy load.
  5. Try to work in high-light conditions. It is best to place a desk lamp near your eyes or work at a monitor. Then the light receptors in the brain are activated.
  6. Take a cool, refreshing shower. Much more effective hiking in the fresh air.

Sleep is the most important biorhythm that restores general state human body. During sleep, toxins are eliminated, natural cell repair processes are normalized, blood flow improves, and organs are saturated with oxygen. Therefore, it is recommended to sleep at open windows to keep the room cool.

If insomnia is poisoning your life and occurs regularly in the absence of stress, you should immediately consult a doctor. This is the main symptom of a complex malfunction of the brain. Insomnia also indicates the development of hidden chronic diseases.

If a person has not slept for a day or two in a row, he may experience following symptoms:


Students and employees of responsible professions often do not sleep for days on end. If a student’s body is young, it quickly compensates for losses, but with age it becomes more and more difficult to restore vitality. Working people know very well what a deadline is (the deadline before the work is due). It’s good that you can relax after submitting your order, but for working people this is a real luxury.

After a sleepless night, a student or employee will literally sleep on the go. Concentration will be reduced to a minimum, problems will begin at work with superiors or at school with teachers. Conflict situations inevitable, and this is a direct path to severe stress.

Standard time for daily sleep– 8-9 hours. If sleep is inadequate and intermittent, then the body itself will fall into a strong state. stressful situation, vitality will decrease to a minimum. A few months after chronic lack of sleep visual and physiological manifestations of a malfunction of the sleep biorhythm will begin:

Healthy sleep can be achieved on your own without resorting to medical drugs. It lasts about 8 hours, alternating phases of active and passive sleep.

For this it is enough:

  1. Fall asleep only in a well-ventilated room, temperature environment within 15-20 degrees.
  2. Don't eat before bed heavy food, rich in calories. Then the load on the stomach will be too great and restless dreams are guaranteed.
  3. It is better to sleep on a comfortable bed to which the body is accustomed.
  4. Do not watch movies or favorite TV programs before bed. This is too much stress on the brain, it is still long time will process the information received.

We will not talk here about the condition of people who, physiologically or as a result of disruption of brain receptors, cannot sleep for a long time.

If you don't sleep for a day, strong consequences for the body will not. There will be drowsiness, fatigue, and possible irritability. Possible malfunction biological clock and shifts in circadian cycles. These cycles are associated with brain activity, metabolism, synchronized with the daily cycle. The slightest daily insomnia will lead to disruption of cyclicity.

If you don’t sleep for three days in a row, then coordination of movements and concentration of attention are impaired. Driving in such cases is strictly prohibited. Sometimes small spasms of the facial muscles begin. Due to impaired blood circulation in the frontal part of the brain, attentiveness and concentration decrease. The digestive system also begins to malfunction.

Fifth day of continuous insomnia. Hallucinations, high irritability, photophobia, stress. The work of the brain and heart slows down. Logical thinking reduced to a minimum, difficult to concentrate. Speech is disrupted, it becomes incoherent, unclear, meaningless.

On the seventh day of insomnia, a person will not look like himself. The behavior will cause significant fears in others, and hallucinations will intensify. The functioning of all organs and systems of the body is disrupted.

Conclusion

Insomnia is a disease that needs to be fought. If you don’t sleep for one or two days, the body will compensate for the losses after the first good rest. But if the disease progresses, strong changes in the body, which may become irreversible.

Every second person in society was probably in a situation where he needed to stay awake for several days. More often this happens during the student period before exams or while studying at school, but working on night shifts is no exception. Therefore, the topic of what ways there are to stay awake for two days is very relevant. This is due to the fact that a person’s pace of life involves feeling cheerful and with minimal damage to health, i.e. at least get a good night's sleep.

How long should sleep last?

Data from observations and studies on sleep indicate that the daily routine should follow the rule of three eights. This means that a person needs to allocate 8 hours for work, sleep and rest. And in this situation, everything is not so simple, because each person is an individual and the time for recuperation will be different for each organism. For some, 5 hours of sleep is enough to get enough sleep and be normal, while for others, ten.

To determine the number of hours to sleep, it is recommended to listen to the body's signals, but it is recommended to pay attention to the following factors:

  • gender;
  • state of the body;
  • age;
  • physical and mental stress.

Dependence of sleep duration on age, gender and activity

According to observational data, a person sleeps less and less time over the years, but newborn babies sleep for 20 hours. For older children, 10-12 hours of sleep is enough, for teenagers 8-10 hours, and for adults 7-8.

The duration of sleep in this case depends on the physical and mental load. This indicator also depends on the state of health, because the disease depletes the body and therefore it uses its energy reserve for protection. This means that he will need more time to restore his strength.

It has been proven that physiological needs in a woman's dream male body are different. Women are emotional creatures, as a result they spend more energy and require more time to restore their strength.

Maximum sleep deprivation without death

A lot of research has been carried out, not only by scientists, but also by interested people. The officially recognized period of wakefulness is 19 days.

An American schoolboy conducted an experiment in which he remained without sleep for 11 days. Resident of Vietnam - Thai Ngoc after illness and high temperature I haven't slept in 38 years. And Nguyen Van Kha has been awake for 27 years without sleep. It started when, falling asleep, I closed my eyes and felt extremely intense itching on eyeballs. He associated it with fire, the image of which he clearly saw at that moment. This caused him to have no desire to sleep.

Englishman Eustace Burnett gave up proper rest 56 years ago. According to a resident of Great Britain, the desire to relax simply disappeared, and since then he has been solving puzzles and crosswords at night.

Yakov Tsiperovich does not sleep at all, while the body remains young, i.e. aging processes are absent both externally and internally. It is noteworthy that this began to happen after clinical death. Fedr Nesterchuk from Ukraine has not slept for about 20 years, preferring to read literary works.

To summarize, it should be noted that the topic of how long a person can live without sleep cannot be revealed unambiguously. This indicator is individual for people and depends on age, gender, and health status.

Consequences of staying awake for two days

It is under no circumstances recommended not to sleep for several days, because it is harmful and has a negative impact on human health and general health. However, there are situations when you have to stay awake for two days in a row. We will figure out what happens to the body and what consequences there may be. Possible consequences if you don’t sleep for 2 days are:

  • depressed state;
  • feeling tired;
  • organ dysfunction digestive system, this symptom will manifest itself as stool disorders in the form of constipation and diarrhea;
  • uncontrollable appetite, with preference given to salty and spicy foods;
  • weakening immune defense, which leads to diseases;
  • suppression of the speed of actions and reactions;
  • disturbance of visual perception;
  • inability to concentrate on one thing;
  • simplification of language;
  • appearance pain in the head area;
  • sudden changes blood pressure;
  • pain in muscle fibers and joints;
  • tachycardia;
  • increased level of irritability.


If you don’t sleep for two days, the level of hormones in the body increases, the action of which is directed to combat stress. How more people does not sleep, the stronger the desire to sleep. However, the longer the period of wakefulness, the more difficult it is to get out of this state.

Emergency situations lead to the fact that backup buttons in the body are turned on, so the person becomes active. But not every person, even if he needs it, can stay awake for two days. We will now look into what can be done to overcome sleep.

Measures to combat drowsiness

There are many recommendations that you can follow to overcome sleep. If you need to stay awake for more than 30 hours, it is better to get enough sleep the night before. But this will not replace a sleepless night, so we bring to your attention ways in which you can stay awake even for two days:


This will help you cheer up, even if you haven't slept for two days.

Drink as much fluid as possible, but the amount of coffee you drink should not exceed two cups in one night.

This is explained by the fact that, otherwise, the effect will be the opposite, it will act as a tranquilizer. The feeling of vigor after coffee will only be present for twenty minutes, so if necessary, if you need to stay awake at night, it is better to use the methods listed above and under no circumstances get carried away with caffeine.

Warning

Do not conduct experiments on the body unless absolutely necessary. After all, such a lack of sleep can leave a negative mark on a person’s memory. In addition, the body rapidly ages, the heart muscle becomes overstrained and wears out.

Violations are also observed in nervous system, which becomes the reason that a person in the future will be tormented by insomnia, or rather the inability to fall asleep. The body's resistance decreases, because sleep deficiency leads to a decrease in the number of T-lymphocytes, which are entrusted with the function of preventing viruses and bacteria from entering the body.

Observations indicate that people who do not sleep become irritable and lash out for no reason. To summarize, I would like to emphasize that under no circumstances should you deplete your body by lack of sleep for several days. Take pity on your body, think about your health, because this is the most valuable thing we have.

Few people are interested in this generally accepted daily routine - lack of sleep is no longer wild. Have you noticed yourself how easily and effortlessly the nights fly by? online worlds, and the clock flashes like the credits of watched TV series. How long can one stay awake a common person? Can't live a day? - yes, this is funny!

All this is simple and fun until you have more serious matters to deal with. If you worked a shift at a factory, or a day in the field, you would sleep dead asleep. The home environment is not so exhausting, and you can quite for a long time spend while awake in front of a PC screen, hugging a pack of crackers. And, probably, you are interested in the question: what will happen if you don’t sleep for a long time?

Randy Gardner risked checking this by staying “online” for 11 days without a break to sleep. On that moment young man was only 17 years old. Such a sadistic experiment was carried out by the guy’s friends. The highlight is that the experiment, the purpose of which was to find out what would happen if you did not sleep for a long time, was not at all malicious, but was carried out in the name of science. The whole fuss was started for the Big Science Fair in one of the high schools in San Diego. It is difficult to imagine what could have become the motivation for committing such an act (after all, not sleeping for 10 days is more than normal).

Games with your mental health quite dangerous and can cause serious damage to consciousness. The schoolchildren understood this very well and did not fully know how such a risky experiment could end. Therefore, Mr. Dement (a doctor from Stanford University) and Lieutenant Colonel John Ross were appointed to monitor what was happening. We can say that only thanks to these individuals the public learned about the experiment, and it was officially registered. Who would take the word of ordinary schoolchildren?

No favors for the victim of a violent experience who answered the question “ what happens if you don't sleep for a long time?", did not have. The subject was not given any energy drinks, including strong tea or coffee. In order for Randine to fall asleep, his friends constantly disturbed him: they drove him around the shops in search of food, played various sport games, tormented me with very loud music, and drove me around in a car. But what did they skate there? We drove at breakneck speeds in oncoming traffic and on bumpy roads. What would you not sacrifice for Mother Science?

Undoubtedly, you are consumed by curiosity - how did it all end?

What happens if you don't sleep for 11 days? But don't worry, everything is not as sad as you might think at first glance. Gardner is alive and well, has not become an indifferent invalid and has not lost his mind. And yet, what happened to the young man during the experiment?

The lack of sleep, after several days, began to manifest itself in mild lethargy. Objects in the surrounding world lost their volume and began to be poorly perceived by consciousness. Speech was no longer so easy (tongue twister became an overwhelming task). Aggression and nervousness became integral companions of Randy. Anyone who has ever stayed awake for more than a day is well aware of the consequences of such self-flagellation. But the young man did not stop at this stage and continued the experiment.

The fourth day of what would happen if you didn’t sleep for a long time greeted Randy with “sand in his eyes.” My eyes were watery, red and very painful, which was definitely the cause of overwork. The same feeling will be experienced by a person who will work with electric welding without special mask, and believe me, there is little good in this. Due to lack of sleep, the guy began to hallucinate and his consciousness began to cloud. The sense of time and reality of what was happening was lost. The only thing left to dream about was the completion of the experiment.

Fortunately, the experiment ended well. After 14 hours of sleep, Randy returned to his normal life again with absolutely no consequences. Many people cite this experiment as evidence that prolonged lack of sleep does not harm a person.

But don't forget, while poor Randy found out, what happens if you don’t sleep for a long time for several days, his behavior could hardly be called normal. The cruel world of hallucinations completely absorbed him, mixing reality with a dream in which inanimate objects came to life, or Ranidy himself lost his personality and became a different person. It is difficult to imagine what is happening in the head of such a “temporarily ill person,” but the fantastic reality did not leave him until the very end of the experiment.

In the experiment, the guy was provided with no sleep by his friends. It is unlikely that you will be able to perform such an experiment at home. After about 48 hours you will be overtaken by the phase REM sleep and in the end you will most likely just fall asleep.

Have you ever wanted to know what happens if you don’t sleep for a long time? Do you have the courage to risk your health and plunge into the hallucinogenic delirium of your own consciousness? Better go to bed, the “Very Interesting” team wishes you sweet dreams.