Current Events > What's the longest you've gone without any sleep?

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My record is 42hrs. Which I guess isnt all that impressive.

Somewhere between 56 to 72 hours.

It's basically impossible to sleep during an alcohol detox.

Also about 42 hours and it was for a work trip

DrizztLink posted...

Somewhere between 56 to 72 hours.

It's basically impossible to sleep during an alcohol detox.

Dang, thats wild.

Hexenherz posted...

Also about 42 hours and it was for a work trip

Cool.

I find after a certain point, I start to have auditory hallucinations, and thats when I know its time to call it quits.

Only missed two nights sleep, and by the end of the third day, was suffering from some kinds of hallucination. (Trying to use a public phone that had clearly been destroyed by vandals is one I do remember).

2 days.
I never dared to go beyond that

I never clocked it exactly. But in my military days on deployments it wasn't uncommon to go 2 or 3 days no sleep depending on work day with watch schedule rotation, plus drills and flight quarters.

The worst part though was flight quarters. Two helicopter's in the air that can go 4 hours then need fuel, staggered so they were landing every 2 hours. We had a stretch on that Gulf deployment where we went 97 days without pulling into port so I went 97 days that no matter what I would never be able to ever sleep more than about 90 minutes at a time because of flight quarters. I was getting really irritable by the end of that stretch.

About 32 hours on the way back from Japan a few years ago.

I don't think I've ever gone much more than 24 hours. I drink too much to go any longer.

Even on the rare occasion that I partake in harder substances, I'm still gonna pass out eventually because I'll be drinking the entire time.

I think a day.

30 hours, probably not even that long.

Around 70 hours

Toward the end I was at a classmate's house working on a group assignment for a college class. The whole time, there was this huge creepy bald guy sitting on the couch just watching TV. No one seemed to acknowledge him, so I thought he was a relative. He'd only grunt when I asked his name.

I later asked my classmate who he was, I was totally hallucinating him

Rexdragon125 posted...

I later asked my classmate who he was, I was totally hallucinating him

During one of my detoxes I could hear two girls standing around outside the room talking about me. It started pretty innocent, but after a half hour or so it was getting violent.

Later that same night I hallucinated a couple of my friends showing up to play beer pong. It was realistic enough to fuck with me but not enough to make me fully believe it.

The only "nice" hallucinations I've gotten were during a detox where I was hearing different music in different rooms of the house. Like the kitchen played a jaunty Irish jig on the violin, but the living room had a French horn.

I struggled with mild insomnia during COVID and had a few nights of no sleep but thankfully never back to back.

Wow some of yall are tough as nails.

Rexdragon125 posted...

Around 70 hours

Toward the end I was at a classmate's house working on a group assignment for a college class. The whole time, there was this huge creepy bald guy sitting on the couch just watching TV. No one seemed to acknowledge him, so I thought he was a relative. He'd only grunt when I asked his name.

I later asked my classmate who he was, I was totally hallucinating him

This reminds me of the time I spent in the psych ward and how every night this old dude would get up, stand at the foot of his bed and proceed to clean his glasses for a good half hour at a time. Freaked me out.

Ive skipped a night of sleep many times, so like 36 hours. Ive never skipped 2 nights tho. That would be crazy

Woke up Friday morning, crash out Monday evening.

Multiple months in a row

Just to hang out with friends.

Workdays are for sleep.

0 hallucinations btw, just exhaustion.

deathguise950 posted...

This reminds me of the time I spent in the psych ward and how every night this old dude would get up, stand at the foot of his bed and proceed to clean his glasses for a good half hour at a time. Freaked me out.

Oh, I forgot one.

My father was asleep in his chair, I was lying on the couch during my 217th five-minute-break from vomiting.

I very distinctly saw him stand up, look at me, insult me while shaking his head, and walk off down the hallway, watched him leave.

Turned my head back, he's still completely asleep in the chair.

About 49 hours. Finals week, fall semester senior year of college. Woke up around 6:30am on Wednesday for an 8am final, stayed up until 7:30-8am Friday morning, cramming for finals, taking them or wrapping up projects.

Around a day. It was horrid.

almost 60 hours

too much adderall. and not even that much, 25mg is too much for me in one day

I think my longest is just over 3 and a half days. That was a long time ago though.

Back when I was studying for my A-Levels, it was fairly common for me to go 2 or 3 days without sleeping because I was working two full time jobs and one part time job around college. Often, there simply werent the hours in a day to sleep.

It does weird things to your brain though. I found that after a couple of days, faces stop making sense. Its hard to describe, but you can see them, but cant in any way use them to identify who youre talking to. During shifts working at the supermarket, because everybody was in uniform, I would look at peoples shoes to work out who I was talking to.

Between 50 and 70.

Glob posted...

I think my longest is just over 3 and a half days. That was a long time ago though.

Back when I was studying for my A-Levels, it was fairly common for me to go 2 or 3 days without sleeping because I was working two full time jobs and one part time job around college. Often, there simply werent the hours in a day to sleep.

It does weird things to your brain though. I found that after a couple of days, faces stop making sense. Its hard to describe, but you can see them, but cant in any way use them to identify who youre talking to. During shifts working at the supermarket, because everybody was in uniform, I would look at peoples shoes to work out who I was talking to.

That is pretty strange. I can sort of relate albeit in a weird way.

Before they put me on meds for whatever mental health problem they told me I had, I was in school after class in the lab. The teachers talking to me. But the whole time shes talking, Im trying to figure out where the door to exit the lab is, so that when I stand up to go, I dont stumble around like a muskox.

I see the door, its right there. ..But I dont know where the door is :0 I know that makes no sense because I can see it right there, but I have no idea where it is lol. Just mass fear and confusion at all times.

DrizztLink posted...

Oh, I forgot one.

My father was asleep in his chair, I was lying on the couch during my 217th five-minute-break from vomiting.

I very distinctly saw him stand up, look at me, insult me while shaking his head, and walk off down the hallway, watched him leave.

Turned my head back, he's still completely asleep in the chair.

Thats a trip and a half! Assume I know nothing about alcoholism, what exactly takes place during a detox? Also, if you dont want to talk about it, thats totally cool.

deathguise950 posted...

Thats a trip and a half! Assume I know nothing about alcoholism, what exactly takes place during a detox? Also, if you dont want to talk about it, thats totally cool.

Alcohol detox is basically the opposite of being drunk. Your body gets used to a certain level of nervous system depression, so it overcompensates when it stops having that depression. And I'm using the term as in essentially "slowdown," not the mental disorder/symptom.

So if most people keep their nervous system at a 5 and drop to a 3 when drinking, an alcoholic gets used to being at a 3 and the body establishes a new "baseline." Lose the depressant, suddenly you're at a 8.

It starts with tremors, very shaky hands. I have shaky hands naturally, so I'll be straight up trembling to the point that I can't drink out of a full glass without spilling. This also comes with sweating, inability to sleep, and feeling like you're wearing a tight headband.

If you don't get some booze or detox meds in you within an hour or two, then the nausea kicks in. Absolutely fucking nothing will stay down, and you'll be puking every ten minutes. For me, this will last for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

Once I stop puking I'll be more or less over the hump, but at this point I've been awake for well over a day and I still won't be able to sleep for at least another.

This is assuming unmedicated detox, which you SHOULD NOT DO. Alcohol (and benzos) are the only substances (I know of) where the withdrawal symptoms themselves can kill you. People die during heroin detox from other things (like choking on vomit), but alcohol can see you go into the full delirium tremens followed by seizure followed by dead.

I've detoxed at least a hundred times, maybe 10% of them medicated, and I am completely serious when I say that I probably shouldn't have survived that.

DrizztLink posted...

Alcohol detox is basically the opposite of being drunk. Your body gets used to a certain level of nervous system depression, so it overcompensates when it stops having that depression. And I'm using the term as in essentially "slowdown," not the mental disorder/symptom.

So if most people keep their nervous system at a 5 and drop to a 3 when drinking, an alcoholic gets used to being at a 3 and the body establishes a new "baseline." Lose the depressant, suddenly you're at a 8.

It starts with tremors, very shaky hands. I have shaky hands naturally, so I'll be straight up trembling to the point that I can't drink out of a full glass without spilling. This also comes with sweating, inability to sleep, and feeling like you're wearing a tight headband.

If you don't get some booze or detox meds in you within an hour or two, then the nausea kicks in. Absolutely fucking nothing will stay down, and you'll be puking every ten minutes. For me, this will last for anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.

Once I stop puking I'll be more or less over the hump, but at this point I've been awake for well over a day and I still won't be able to sleep for at least another.

This is assuming unmedicated detox, which you SHOULD NOT DO. Alcohol (and benzos) are the only substances (I know of) where the withdrawal symptoms themselves can kill you. People die during heroin detox from other things (like choking on vomit), but alcohol can see you go into the full delirium tremens followed by seizure followed by dead.

I've detoxed at least a hundred times, maybe 10% of them medicated, and I am completely serious when I say that I probably shouldn't have survived that.

Jesus Murphy. That sounds like hell man. Im glad I dont drink much. Thats not something Id ever want to experience.

30 hours?

Only 24 hours

36 hours? It was during height of covid at work and they had barely any people staffing. I made BANK overtime doing 36hr shift in a row (then a 24hr shift in a row 12 hours later lol), but I wanted to fucking keel over at the end of it >_>

I once went 4 days with no sleep. Not by choice. Random bout of insomnia where I literally laid in bed for 8 hours terrified out of my mind not knowing wtf was going on. Which made it even worse.
I think the record is 11 days.

5-6 days

It's tough. I have skipped sleep for a whole day but I have to stay up and moving because I can fall asleep easily the moment I sit down and relax, even if I'm not tired.

36 hours, I really like sleep.

90-something hours when I was 16.

I've always suffered from mild insomnia, and maybe once every week or two I just wouldn't be able to fall asleep so I'd stay up playing a game or reading all night. It almost felt like a superpower when I was younger. I was always first among my friends to beat new games or just get really good at the multiplayer because I'd have these random 10-hour sessions in the middle of the night. I simply couldn't sleep, nobody else was awake, and there was nothing else to do. So I grinded.

But yeah, the worst was a particular weekend when I was 16. Short version comes down to sleepover and new video game first night, insomnia second night, friend's birthday party third night, and 3 shifts of work over the 4 days. I got off work at 10pm Sunday night and flopped into my bed at around 11pm. I woke up at 1am. Tuesday morning.

I slept for 26 consecutive hours and literally skipped a calendar day. I do not recommend.

EDIT: Because I know someone's gonna ask. It was during the summer. No school to worry about at the time.

Like 5-6 days I think.

Once when I was 9 and had a serious injury that had gone untreated. Was in extreme constant pain. Couldn't, drink, move, or sleep. Was torturous.

Another time I was put on depression and anxiety medicine. I don't remember which it was, but one of them made me extremely antsy. That's the only way I can describe it. Like I couldn't stop moving, felt like I was compelled to always be moving somehow. Couldn't sit still for more than a few seconds before I became agitated and had to do something. After 3 days of that I called my doctor and they said to stop immediately. I did, but it still took another day or two for that to stop.

By the time I could finally relax I was completely exhausted, and was starting to hallucinate. Nothing major, but seeing shadow people in my peripheral and such, which I think is common with lack of sleep.

A full day and a half I think.

Never again.

I think about 30 hours a few years back when dealing with some severe dental pain.

Around 2 days. I forget exactly how long it was

Probably around 30-40 hours.

Plane flight plus time zone changes. Cant sleep on the overseas flight, cant sleep in the place.

When i was a stubborn kid, I stayed up for 4 days. Never again.

Hallucinations were so terrifying and real that even remembering them now, almost 30 years later, it makes me uneasy.

I've never gone a full 48 hours without sleep, but there were definitely finals weeks in undergrad where I would stay up 4 nights out of a week or something like that.

Around 24 hours and never on purpose

26-28 hours when in the army.

Probably around 42 hours too. Fail to sleep one night and then go to bed the next night a little late because my body is just crazy sometimes.

Missed two nights of sleep before in a row before, once or twice. Like 50-60 hours without sleep.

2nd day without sleep gives me mild auditory hallucinations. Nothing crazy, just doors closing, cars parking, someone saying "hey" once maybe. What's more freaky is seeing sudden movement out of the corner of my eye, but nothing's there when I turn my head.

All said pretty mild, the stories I read ITT sound crazy.

SauI_Goodman posted...

I think the record is 11 days.

yes, and then you die

though most people die around 8-9